Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN – University of Texas junior Darrell Morehouse of Arlington says he's done all he can to live cheaply – as ever-increasing tuition threatens his dream of climbing from pizza delivery man to mechanical engineer.

He wears thrift-store shirts, shares a low-rent apartment in southeast Austin, commutes to campus using a bike and shuttle bus, and takes ribbing from fellow students for his packed lunches of canned soup or ravioli.

Even with all the scrimping, Mr. Morehouse has to borrow half of the $22,000 a year in tuition, housing and other expenses to be at UT.

"It scares me," said the 27-year-old, who transferred to UT from Tarrant County College Southeast. "How am I going to pay for my kids to go to college when I'll still be paying for my own for years and years?"

Texas, once home to state universities that were enviable educational bargains, now is ranked the 19th-most-expensive in the country.

And some Texas lawmakers have promised a big push to rein in tuition and fees, which have jumped an average of more than 50 percent at public, four-year universities since the Legislature gave regents full authority to set tuition rates in 2003.

Their efforts are sure to provoke a fight in the new Legislature meeting in January. Top GOP state leaders want campuses to remain in charge of tuition rates. So do university officials, who say higher prices haven't discouraged record numbers of applicants, and were necessary because the state allowed per-student funding to lag.

"Although there have been increases in state funding, that increased funding has not kept pace with enrollment growth and inflation," said De Juana Lozada, spokeswoman for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The Legislature passed tuition deregulation in 2003, while grappling with a $10 billion budget shortfall. A tight budget, though as yet not in the red, looms next year. And that could complicate attempts to limit what universities charge because there may not be enough in extra state aid to overcome campuses' objections.

Bills to cap tuition are just part of what's expected to be a busy higher-education agenda, including efforts by lawmakers to peel back the automatic top 10 percent admission rules, exempt textbooks from sales taxes and ban illegal immigrants from getting in-state tuition.

'Down the tubes'

To Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, the constant tuition increases have made college unaffordable for many students. He has filed a bill to freeze tuition for two years. After that, annual increases could not exceed the consumer price index.

"Kids' dreams are going down the tubes," said Mr. Hinojosa, whose measure has eight co-sponsors, including three North Texas Republicans – Bob Deuell of Greenville, Chris Harris of Arlington and Jane Nelson of Flower Mound. "People who do not have kids in college don't understand how high tuition has been increased."

His rate-hike moratorium faces uncertain prospects.

GOP Gov. Rick Perry, who last time threatened to veto any bill to re-regulate tuition, won't say what he'll do if such a freeze passes.

"The governor hasn't had an opportunity to review it," spokeswoman Allison Castle said. She said Mr. Perry "remains supportive of deregulation."

House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, backed the move to get the Legislature out of the tuition-setting business, and he sees no need to reverse that, said spokeswoman Alexis DeLee.

Although Mr. Craddick "recognizes that tuition rates have increased substantially," she said, he believes university officials "should take the lead in making schools' financial decisions because they know what their individual institutions' needs are."

The matter is far from settled, though.

Mr. Craddick hasn't locked down another term as speaker. Most Democrats roundly denounce tuition deregulation, and they've trimmed GOP majorities in both chambers.

Even among rank-and-file GOP lawmakers, there's growing consternation over "runaway tuition," said consultant Todd Smith of Austin.

"It's now being felt by the Republican base and is touching middle-class families the hardest," he said. Mr. Smith, who advised eight House candidates this year, said they all fielded voter complaints about college costs.

"It's going to be hard to ignore their unhappiness," he said.

Faster than inflation

Nationally, tuition and fees have increased faster than inflation every year since 1980, according to the College Board, a higher-education association.

For the current school year, Texas' four-year public universities charge in-state residents tuition and fees of $6,894, on average, compared with $6,585 nationally. Texas' tuition and fees rose 6.9 percent from last year, outstripping a nationwide increase of 6.4 percent.

Texas universities must use part of their increased tuition revenues to boost financial aid for middle-class students, but assistance generally trails rising costs.

The state's biggest pot of financial aid – the Texas Grant program, which mostly helps students from families making less than $40,000 – dispenses about $5,300 a year per beneficiary. This year, tuition, books, room and board at public colleges will cost an average of nearly $18,400. And though 68,000 new students qualified, there was money to help only 29,000.

"We need to do more, absolutely," said Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, a key House education budget writer.

But he doesn't want lawmakers to set tuition. Rates are "leveling off," he said, and schools have begun to innovate in exciting ways.

Some use "creative pricing" to encourage students to load up on classes and graduate faster. The University of Texas at Dallas offers a "lock in" option, so families will know what tuition will cost for four years, he said.

"The principle of governing boards making these decisions for their institutions is a sound one," said Mr. Branch, who heads a special committee on education finance.

Many higher education experts argue that tuition doesn't begin to pay the full cost of a student's education. And they say UT and other top public universities remain a great bargain for students who get the same quality of education they would receive at a private research university that levies far higher tuition.

State funding

Students aren't a solid bloc in support of tuition limits, either. The Daily Texan, UT's student newspaper, chided Mr. Hinojosa in an editorial last week for being "blind to the deeper cause" of higher tuition. That's because of insufficient state funding, it wrote, "and that comes at the fault of legislators – like himself."

Mr. Hinojosa responded, "There's a lot of blame to go around." He agreed that lawmakers have been too tight-fisted in education budgets, but he believes regents have "gone overboard" raising rates.

Keshav Rajagopalan, UT student government president, also opposes a rate freeze. "Tuition flexibility is an important tool" campus officials need, he said.

Mr. Morehouse, the former Arlington pizza man, would welcome relief in any form.

He and fiancee Tara Haelle, a UT graduate student also from Arlington, said that while they make excellent grades and won merit-based financial aid, they expect to rack up $80,000 in debt before they graduate.

While from middle-class backgrounds, both said their parents have suffered various problems and can't help them much financially.

Ms. Haelle, 30, a former high school English teacher, said they hope lawmakers lend a hand.

"They aren't investing in human capital," she said. "If the state really wants to make education a priority, then they basically need to walk the walk."

Higher-ed agenda

A look at some of the higher-education bills that lawmakers filed for their new session in January:
Tuition: Several seek to rein in rising tuition, including bills to freeze rates at public universities for two years and then limit future increases to the inflation rate, measured by the consumer price index; to cap tuition and fee increases to 5 percent a year; and to end deregulation and return to a system of required legislative approval for tuition increases.

Top 10 percent: Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, want to change a 1997 law on college admissions so that fewer Texas high school graduates get in based solely on class rank. The law, passed after a federal court effectively banned using race in admissions decisions, lets students in the top 10 percent of their class attend the state university of their choice. Ms. Shapiro would let colleges reserve just half their slots for top-10 percent applicants; Mr. Branch, only 40 percent. Once reserved slots were filled based on class rank, a school could fill the rest as it chose.

Illegal immigrants: Although Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature decided in 2001 that it made economic sense to encourage illegal immigrants' children to go to college, Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, wants to strip many of in-state tuition privileges. If she prevails, no one in the country illegally could be considered a resident eligible for the lower, in-state rates.

Sales tax on textbooks: College texts would be exempt from sales tax year-round under a proposal by Rep. David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio. Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, would create a sales tax "holiday" for college students who buy required books during 10-day intervals before classes begin each semester.

Financial aid: Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, wants to set aside 25 percent of the money from tuition increases for financial aid for low-income students and target it all at low-income students. Currently, 20 percent is held back, most of it to help middle-class students.