Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Sen. Rodney Ellis cites progress in tight times.

State lawmakers are expected to boost spending on financial aid for college students during the next two years by about 35 percent, to $1 billion, under an agreement reached by House and Senate budget negotiators.

As sizable as that sum might be, it falls $400 million short of what the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board had recommended to address a growing population of college-age students from low-income families.

"With this funding increase, the Texas Legislature has ensured tens of thousands more students will be financially able to pursue a college degree," said Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes, the coordinating board's chief executive. "We are grateful and look forward to continuing the dialogue next session on how additional funding for students can help Texas reach its educational and economic goals."

The state's grant and loan programs would receive increases totaling $259 million if, as expected, the House and Senate approve the 2010-11 budget that their negotiators have crafted.

Most of that increase, $186 million, would go to the Texas Grant program, raising the outlay on the centerpiece of the state's financial aid initiatives by 45 percent to $615 million. That's $100 million more than the Senate had initially budgeted and $38 million less than the House had earmarked.

"I think this is a defining legislative achievement this session," said Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, a proponent of the Texas Grant program.

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who was one of the architects of the program when it was established in 1999, agreed. "I think we've made tremendous progress in a time when state budgets are tight," he said.

The expected infusion of cash still would leave the Texas Grant program unable to provide aid to all eligible low-income students, the fastest-growing segment of the college-age population and a group that includes many blacks and Hispanics.

Currently, about 83,000 students receive a Texas Grant, which can be as much as $6,080 per year. The proposed budget would increase the number of recipients to 104,000, 62 percent of the pool of eligible students, according to the coordinating board.

The number of eligible students is constantly increasing as the population rises and more students complete the recommended or advanced high school curriculum, the academic benchmark for eligibility.

Moreover, because currently enrolled college students get priority in renewing their Texas Grants, only about half of the students entering college in the fall for the first time would receive the aid.

A separate grant program for community college students would grow by 71 percent to $24 million for the biennium under the budget agreement.

The B-on-Time loan program — students do not have to repay the zero-interest loan if they graduate on time with at least a B average — would be increased by 82 percent to $140 million.

Money for a grant program that serves students at private colleges and universities in Texas would stay flat, at about $212 million for the next two years.

The state's work-study program would also remain unchanged, at $15 million.

Texas lags behind other states in college attendance, and it is, therefore, important to make sure students aren't prevented from enrolling for financial reasons, said Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on education.

"In the long term, it's a great investment for the state,"

Hochberg said. "The chambers worked very cooperatively. I think we had similar goals."