AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The Texas Senate approved legislation Monday that would limit tuition and fee increases to no more than 5 percent a year for most large universities.
The legislation would also permit schools to establish a separate program allowing incoming college freshmen to lock in tuition rates and pay the same amount for four years.
The programs would not be required.
The proposed relief package comes six years after Texas lawmakers allowed universities to raise tuition to make up for declining state appropriations. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, annual tuition and fees rose 86 percent from 2003 to 2009.
But the reforms passed wouldn’t simply give that rate-setting power back to the Legislature. Instead, the Senate passed a complicated package of mandates and incentives designed to slowly lower tuition costs.