Despite proposed increase, Texas Tech’s proposed tuition increase less than other state universities
By Adam Young
When the Texas Tech University Board of Regents set a tuition increase cap of 4.4 percent for 2008-2009, less than proposed rates at other state universities, it set the stage for a continued trend of increasing tuition in Texas.
In December, the board of regents of the nine institutions in the University of Texas System, passed a resolution instructing the campuses to limit proposed increases in tuition and fees to 4.95 percent, or $150 per semester, whichever is greater, for each of the academic years 2008-09 and 2009-10, according to a University of Texas System news release.
University of Texas System Regent’s Chairman H. Scott Caven, Jr. said the system's regents believe tuition rate increases are a necessary part of maintaining high academic standards at Texas universities, according to the release.
“Higher education is a labor-intensive business,” Caven said. “The costs of recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty, the facilities and equipment they need to educate students increase much more quickly than other costs in the regular marketplace.”
Since tuition deregulation was enacted in 2003, the average cost of tuition in Texas' 35 public colleges and universities has increased by more than 37%, according to information provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
The Texas legislature enacted legislation allowing the boards of regents at state university's to set rates for tuition and fees beginning in 2003.
Since deregulation was enacted, tuition rates at Texas Tech have increased faster than the rate of inflation in the United States, according to information provided by the U. S. Department of Labor Web site, www.bls.gov/cpi/#data.
Though the effects of inflation have increased inflated prices approximately 18.7 percent between 2002 and 2008, tuition rates at Texas Tech increased approximately 63.3 percent from $88 in 2002-2003 to $143.67 in 2007-08, according to the Texas Tech's Web site, www.irs.ttu.edu/Tuition/newindex.htm.
The cost of total tuition and fees also increased approximately 75.4 percent from $3,867 in 2002-2003 to $6,783.10 in 2007-2008, according to the Web site.
But Caven said decisions to increase tuition since deregulation have not been taken lightly, according to the news release.
“We take the trust and responsibility the Legislature placed in us when they gave us the authority to set tuition in 2003 very seriously," he said in the news release. “Since that time, our institutions have increased tuition to make up for years of stagnant funding, large increases in enrollment, and to advance excellence in the classroom and remain competitive.”
As a law maker, Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, said it is a balancing act to determine how much of the burden of paying for college should be placed on taxpayers and the students and parents who pay for college because tax dollars are a limited resource.
“I think it’s part of an ongoing attempt to find the right balance between those two," Cornyn said, " and, up until recently, the taxpayers have been the one pretty much picking up most of the tab.
"It ought to lie, in my view, principally on the individual student — they’re the one’s that are going to benefit from it, but I think we ought to look for a variety of ways that we can help through student loans and grants.”