Tuition Up 24% at UNT
By Byron LaMasters
If you needed further proof that Tom Craddick is an enemy of higher education, check out this story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Tuition at the University of North Texas will increase by 24 percent next school year, in large part to cover state budget cuts in the face of rising enrollment costs.
UNT regents voted 7-2 Friday to increase undergraduate tuition to $123 per semester credit hour -- a $24 per-hour increase. A full-time Texas student taking 15 credit hours will pay $1,845 a semester, up from $1,485 this school year.
Costs for room and board will also rise at the Denton campus.
The state no longer provides funding based on enrollment, so public universities are turning to students to make up the difference -- an option provided last year when the state Legislature deregulated tuition at state schools.
[...]
The University of Texas at Austin raised tuition and fees 26 percent from fall 2003 to fall 2004. Charges at UT-El Paso increased 28 percent. Most resident undergraduates at the University of Texas at Arlington will see a 17.5 percent tuition increase from fall 2003.
[...]
Student leaders, unhappy about the news, intend to study the effect of the increase on students. Plans are to give a report to regents this summer, said Jesse Davis, 20, president-elect of the UNT student body.
Some students will probably enroll at community colleges to save money or drop out of the university, Davis said.
The increase in cost of higher education at Texas universities is outrageous. No new taxes was a joke. Tom Craddick and the Republicans in this state have raised taxes on students and middle class families by an extraordinary amount through tuition deregulation. Other students aren't so lucky. For students that can't afford to pay more, many are forced to drop out of school or enroll in community colleges. I hope that this serves as a wake up call for students to get involved. Regardless, we'll be sure to remind students here at UT who raised their tuition rates come November.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at March 28, 2004 07:16 PM
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And Senator Royce West voted FOR tuition deregulation when it mattered (at the 2/3s level in the Senate - although he ultimately voted against it just to claim cover)
Royce West also voted FOR tort reform and FOR the Republican budget that took scores of thousands of kids off of CHIPS.
Perhaps Senator West is a Republican after all?
WhoMe?,
Broadly speaking, a tax is money taken for public use by the government. Tuition, conversely, is a voluntary payment for service; students at private colleges pay it as well, they simply aren't subsidized by tax dollars.
If you don't see this as a meaningful distinction then, well, there's no point in arguing with you.
