- Tuition hikes have state leaders looking to regulate college costs.
By the time the state Legislature reconvenes next year, students at the University of Texas at Austin will be paying about $150 more a semester.
The University of Houston will be charging students about $100 more. UT students in San Antonio will see their bills rise by about $160; those in Dallas will be paying even more.
And state lawmakers, watching with frustration as college costs climb, will be looking at whether they should have a say in whether those bills rise.
The tuition hikes approved in recent weeks may prove to be the final straw for lawmakers who decided more than a decade ago to allow colleges to set their own costs. State leaders have chided university presidents and regents who approved the recent increases and on Monday Gov. Greg Abbott announced the creation of a new initiative aimed, in part, at reining in college costs.
An effort in the Legislature last year to regulate tuition gained bipartisan support, though it did not become law. Now, momentum appears to be growing anew to tighten control over tuition at state schools.
"The universities, by increasing tuition, have also increased the prospects of re-regulation come 2017," said Mark P. Jones, a political scientist at Rice University.
It is not just an issue in Texas. As states have slashed higher education funding over the last several years, colleges and universities across the country have leaned more on tuition to cover their costs. Nationally, state funding for public schools decreased by 12 percent overall between 2003 and 2012, and the median tuition at those schools rose 55 percent, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
