Texas News

ARTICLE

Date ArticleType
8/24/2016 TAB

TAB's Daily Message for Aug. 24, College opportunity

If Lt. Gov. Patrick wants to eliminate set-asides then the state must replace that money from another source.  This is a time when we are trying to open up the opportunity for a college education to more children from all economic backgrounds, not slam the door on them.

Bill Hammond
CEO

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20160823-lawmakers-consider-dan-patrick-s-call-to-ax-345m-in-aid-for-poor-needy-college-students.ece?utm_source=Texas+Tribune+Master

Lawmakers consider Dan Patrick's call to ax $345M in aid for poor, needy college students

By J. David McSwane
Data and Enterprise Reporter

AUSTIN — The ability to afford a college degree is in jeopardy for hundreds of thousands of young Texans — increasingly Hispanic and mostly poor — as lawmakers consider gutting a financial aid program that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick considers "a hidden tax."

At Patrick's behest, the Senate Higher Education Committee took its first look Tuesday at so-called tuition set-asides, which gave about $345 million in aid to more than 200,000 needy students the last fiscal year.

The state's top higher education official forecast a major hit to the state's growing minority population should lawmakers eliminate the program without infusing about a third of a billion dollars in tax dollars into campuses — a sticky proposition for a Republican Legislature loath to increase state spending.

"There's a correlation between being a student of color and poor," Raymund Paredes, commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, told senators. "So we can expect that there will be an increasing number of students coming through the pipeline who want an education but will not be able to obtain access."

"If tuition set-asides are eliminated and that funding is not replaced by some other mechanism, that will have a significant impact on affordability of higher education in Texas," he added.

Patrick has taken aim at the program because it's subsidized by wealthier students who pay up to 20 percent of their tuition, on average $684 a year, into a pot of money that's redistributed to students who can't pay tuition. The money provides about $3,600 a year in aid for the average full-time undergraduate who receives aid from both set-asides, according to 2014 data.

Patrick has said that cost, which was in part created to offset the state's divestment from higher education, places too much strain on middle-income families faced with skyrocketing tuition. He has said that axing the program would instantly lower tuition by 20 percent.

The Dallas Morning News found that wealthier students would see more modest savings — about 7 percent, or $482 a year —while cutting set-asides would also hurt tens of thousands of middle-income families who also receive the aid.

The analysis found Hispanic students would be hardest hit, losing nearly 75,000 grants totaling about $150 million a year. Texas' historically black colleges could see drastic drops in enrollment because at some campuses, 1 in 3 students count on this aid to pay the bills.

About 31,000 students from extremely poor families, earning less than $10,000 a year, would lose funding. The poorest of the poor would lose the most aid — nearly 50,000 grants totaling about $80 million.

Inherent in the debate, which is likely to be a big issue in the forthcoming legislative session, is that for lawmakers to address set-asides, they must face the very question that led to their creation: Should families, or taxpayers, bear the burden of funding public higher education?

"We're using an accounting trick here," said Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican. "Are we better off looking at the set-asides and effectively buying down tuition?"

"Buying down" tuition with state money will be more than a tough sell. As Dallas Democratic Sen. Royce West pointed out, holding on to funding for a different state-funded financial aid program, the TEXAS grant, was a hard-fought battle.

Funneling more money into that grant, which unlike set-asides favors high-performing students and carries with it more rules, might be the best alternative, said Chairman Kel Seliger, an Amarillo Republican.

While the use of tuition revenue to help poor students has in recent months become a conservative rallying cry akin to raising property taxes, Texas' current method of giving a leg up to some students isn't unique, said Sarah Pingel, a policy analyst with the Education Commission of the States.

"The practice of directing tuition revenue to fund aid is really widespread," Pingel said.

One possible middle road could be that lawmakers do away with the state's mandate that all schools keep set-asides, but still allow schools to do it if they wish.

Lawmakers did that in Arizona, whose program is most similar to Texas', pledging $2 for every $1 that colleges gave in aid.

"But the Legislature has not kept up with their end of covering the $2 match," Pingel said, as a few members of the committee snickered.

That effectively eliminated such financial aid, Pingel said.

Sen. Kirk Watson, an Austin Democrat who opposes Patrick's plan, said, "I have absolutely zero faith in the Texas Legislature coming up with $345 million" to ensure financial aid for students who need it.

If the Legislature resists giving more money to higher education, as Watson predicts, the fate of set-asides will come down to a philosophical question: Should wealthier students subsidize poorer students?

As leader of the Senate, Patrick will have considerable influence on any bill addressing set-asides. And during a similar hearing in 2011, he made his view clear.

"College education should not be out of reach for the poor," Texas Monthly quoted Patrick saying. "But it also should not be out of reach for middle class, and the middle class should not be paying for the poor."