AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Students planned to rally Wednesday at the Texas Capitol to drum up support for a tuition freeze.
The Associated Press reports the central complaint is that legislators are talking a lot about delivering relief to middle-class parents. But lawmakers are saying little about how they’ll keep paying for faculty salaries and fund research if tuition dollars start drying up.
Texas Senate Bill 105 would put a moratorium on tuition increases for two years, peg future hikes to the cost of living and require that most fee hikes be approved by a majority of students.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini of Laredo chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee.
She says the unintended consequences of not funding higher education adequately and of not providing different sources of revenue will be “mediocrity and inadequacy.” She says that’s not acceptable.