House Votes Down Higher Education

[CajunFun]

To see how your Legislator voted, check the front page.

[BeauCajun]

_ To see how your Legislator voted, check the front page. _

Strike 2 on Landry.

[rhineaux]

_ To see how your Legislator voted, check the front page. _

Is there any possible excuse that these guys could offer as to why they would have voted it down, such as potential other consequences down the road? In other words, passing this bill would have helped education this year, but could it have put the state in a much worse predicament later on, possibly just putting off the cuts until another year? I have my doubts that this is the case because politicians tend to be a rather short-sighted bunch to begin with...just curious.

[HoustonCajun]

_ To see how your Legislator voted, check the front page. _

Check out today's article in the Houston Chronicle about UH increasing tuition to help cover legislative budget cuts and The Cougar Promise program that covers tuition fand fees for any student from any family earning $40,000 or less. UH's plunging income from its endowment dropped 32% last year necessitating the need for increased tuition and fees.

Tuition, fees on the rise at UH
By JEANNIE KEVER HOUSTON CHRONICLE
June 23, 2009, 10:33PM

Tuition and fees will go up at all four University of Houston schools next fall:

• University of Houston: Up 3.9 percent, or $9.1 million.

• University of Houston-Downtown: • Up 4.8 percent, or $2.1 million.

• University of Houston-Clear Lake: • Up 3.3 percent, or $1.1 million.

University of Houston-Victoria: Up 3.4 percent, or $500,000.
Tuition and fees at all four campuses in the University of Houston system will go up next year, despite pleas from students to keep rates flat while the economy is suffering.

“In the real world, this business model would not happen,” senior Sam Dike told the regents before they voted on the increase. “When revenue is low, businesses don’t raise prices.”

He and other students suggested freezing faculty salaries instead.

But regents agreed 6-2 to raise tuition and fees, saying plunging income from the university’s endowment — which has dropped about 32 percent in the past year — left them no choice. Even with the increase, UH has begun slashing expenses and cutting staff.

“The enemy is the stock market,” said board chairman Welcome Wilson Sr.

Carl Carlucci, vice chancellor for administration and finance, did not have an exact number of positions that will be cut, but said it will be less than 1 percent of staff.

The fee increases vary by campus: UH, up 3.9 percent; UH-Clear Lake, up 3.3 percent; UH-Downtown, up 4.8 percent, and UH-Victoria, up 3.4 percent.

The dollar increases were relatively modest, up $131 per semester for a full-time student at UH, less at the other schools.

2 regents vote against
But students warned that during tough times, every penny counts.

“Some person out there is thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll go to college,’” said Andre Evans, 23. “Then they’ll assess the costs and say, ‘Maybe college isn’t for me.’”

Regent Lyndon Rose, one of two who voted against the increase, drew applause when he said administrators call for increases every year.

“It’s not right,” he said. “It’s not fair. I think at the end of the day, we’re doing a disservice to students.”

Dennis Golden cast the other “no” vote.

Other regents said they sympathized with students, but the schools, especially UH and its drive to become a top-ranked research university, couldn’t absorb the loss of funding.

Growth in aid, faculty
All four schools still face budget cuts, even with the additional money from the increase. Much of that, especially at the central campus, is due to the endowment’s drop. UH will withdraw $9 million less than in past years, forcing it to find money elsewhere for scholarships, endowed faculty positions and other programs usually covered by the endowment.

The cut in endowment funding for the other three campuses is far lower — about $1.3 million combined.

University administrators said the additional money raised from tuition and fees will be spent on things that directly benefit students — more financial aid and additional faculty and staff to help guide students through college.

The Cougar Promise program, started last year to cover tuition and fees for any student from a family earning $30,000 or less, will be expanded to students from families earning up to $40,000.

After the vote, Kenneth Fomunung, UH student body president, tried to be philosophical.

“Tuition is one of those things,” he said. “You don’t have much choice. You hope that it translates to tangible improvements.”

jeannie.kever@chron.com

[CajunT]

_ Is there any possible excuse that these guys could offer as to why they would have voted it down, such as potential other consequences down the road? In other words, passing this bill would have helped education this year, but could it have put the state in a much worse predicament later on, possibly just putting off the cuts until another year? I have my doubts that this is the case because politicians tend to be a rather short-sighted bunch to begin with...just curious. _

rhineaux,

I don’t think the people that voted against this bill are the villains any more then those that voted for it. This is one big political shell game, with one side demagogue higher education and healthcare to cover their backsides for not cutting pet projects in their own district. On one hand the so-called higher education saviors are proclaiming the morale high ground for trying to cushion the financial blow to higher education and health care, but behind the scenes these same politicians are not willing to cut their districts allocations funding for pet projects and delay their own pay raises. Once again, they are going to ask the tax payers to carry the burden, while they pocket their pay raises and take more money from the state for their districts. This is rank and file hypocrisy, and cowardly. It’s time they make difficult decisions and hard cuts in other areas of the budget.

As you have stated, this is only going to soften the blow and is not the long term answer for funding higher education and health care. We have the rainy day funds to patch this year’s budget and hold a Constitutional Convention in the spring to unprotect some of the states sacred cows from budget cuts in the future. Kudos to those in the House that voted against this tax increase and put it right back in the public arena for all of us to see what is taken place in Baton Rouge. Its time we all take a stand and ask these politicians to cut other areas of the state budget, including their own pet projects and delay any pay raise for themselves. It is also time for the state to tighten its own belt and reduce the payrolls that employee over 104,000 employees for a state with a population fewer than 4 million people. Cutting the state payroll by 4,000 jobs would produce a huge savings in the state budget.

I’m not happy with the proposed budget cuts to higher education and health care, but I’m not going pat our local politicians on the back because they are gutless. We need to hold them accountable and demand that they cut the pork from the state budget, including their own district pet projects. I agree with Dr. Abraham that this is not good for the state’s future and long term job creation. But I would like to see a list of funding and project cuts from each of our local representatives that were taken out of the state budget. Lets see have some honesty and transparency in this debate and not just drink the koolaid.

[CajunT]

_ Strike 2 on Landry. _

Kudos to Landry,Cortez and Robideax for putting this back on the front page. Let's see what cuts these politicians and those that voted for it are willing to make in full public view.

[Etowncajun]

I maybe wrong but most of our senators and representatives base most of their campagins on the importance of education and health care? The first place and the deepest cuts are higher ed and health care. Funny how that works.