Greg Abbott does this to our universities even as the State of Texas hoards tens of billions of dollars. They should use some of that money to help, and should immediately lower the tax rate by two cents on the state side of the sales tax.
Of course, the savings are only for one year, election year; he must do something to let people think he cares about them, but he doesn’t.
Texas has about 24 billion that it rolled over from the previous budget and another 24 billion in a rainy day fund.
Public Colleges should be free to our citizens.
Public colleges in Texas were once effectively free. In the 1800s, land-grant institutions (like Texas A&M) charged almost no tuition, and until the mid-20th century (1960s), tuition at Texas public universities was either free or only a few dollars per credit hour. But then most of the students were DEI, mostly white and privileged, up until the 1960s. Amazing how adding some color to the student body increases the tuition.
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights, provided World War II veterans with up to $500 toward an education or training program. Even with that generous grant, policymakers expected fewer than 800,000 returning servicemen to cash in on the offer. In the end, nearly 8 million veterans used the GI Bill to fund their higher education.
“They absolutely flood the colleges and universities,” says Dorn, “and many places are not ready for the numbers, so they have to build temporary barracks on campus to house these guys.”
By putting $500 in the hands of millions of young American men, the GI Bill spurred the rapid growth and expansion of college and university campuses. Again, very little of this was paid for by the students themselves because the federal government made it a priority to subsidize higher education.
Many Black veterans, however, were either denied their GI Bill education benefits or restricted to a handful of underfunded institutions.
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