Wearing royal blue t-shirts emblazoned with loud yellow letters reading "Tuition Relief Now", nearly one hundred Texas public university students marched from the heart of the UT-Austin campus to the South steps of the State Capitol, as a show of support for SB 105, by state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen. The bill freezes tuition and indexes future increases to inflation. Statewide, tuition at public universities has climbed about 50% since 2003, when lawmakers "deregulated" tuition and allowed universities to set rates to meet needs.

Now, tuition relief seems to be winning wide support. But if tuition's frozen, the cost of running these universities has to come from somewhere, and students are hoping lawmakers budget enough money to make up the difference.

"We're saying, you all have the power to do it, it's your job now to provide us with the funding we need to make sure we have a great education for all the students of Texas," said UT freshman Alejandra Salinas.

The march to the capitol, from the backside.

1 Comments

Anonymous said:

What do they want?

Low tuition!

How to make that happen?

They don't know!

Any practical policy, any appropriations suggestions?

No!

March 1, 2009 9:43 AM

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