|
|
 Newsletter sign-up: Top Headlines |
 
|
Get Breaking News on your cell|
About This Blog
News, analysis and opinion on reforms being offered to improve schools, whether the ideas originate in Washington, Austin or Dallas. The online discussion will take education policy debates seriously, while it connects them to students from grade school through college. We welcome and read all letters from readers. Letters are selected for publication based on their clarity and brevity. They also are chosen to represent a diverse set of views on as many issues as possible. February 2010
Recent Posts
Obama's right to elevate standards, but what if schools don't meet them? UT-Austin: What about using more of its endowment? UNT President Bataille's letter offers some clues Ken Starr: A good choice for Baylor or a bad one? Felipe Calderon's bet on Juarez's schools Baylor's new president: Ken Starr Bill White's smart school finance position A question for tonight's Democratic gubernatorial debate Big urban districts: Tom Luce shares his idea about spreading progress Categories
dallasnews.com Blogs
|
« UNT President Bataille's letter offers some clues |
Main| Obama's right to elevate standards, but what if schools don't meet them? »
The DMN's Holly Hacker and Bob Garrett reported this week on the budget cuts that state agencies are being asked to make to help correct the state's budget shortfall of anywhere between $10 billion to $15 billion. Universities naturally were on the list, including about $26.6 million in reductions for UT-Austin, $7.2 million for UT-Dallas and $8.3 million for UT-Arlington. We're in a hole, so everyone's going to have to live with less than ideal situations. University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa acknowledged that point in an editorial board interview Wednesday. But he also pointed out something that surprised me. While the UT-System got about a 6.7 percent increase in legislative appropriations during last year's session, UT-Austin got only about a 1.9 percent hike. That's because the state uses formulas based upon enrollment to help fund campuses. And UT-Austin has pretty much maxed out on its enrollment capacity. (UT-Dallas, on the other hand, is in a growth phase so it received a greater percentage increase in legislative appropriations.) Cigarroa said he was exploring ways the Legislature could fund schools other than through enrollment figures. He didn't have any specific suggestions, but that seems like a plausible path to go down. Perhaps the Legislature could reward things like cutting-edge research projects. Whatever the answer, we all have a vested interest in UT-Austin, as well as Texas A&M, climbing higher in the rankings of public universities. Students would benefit from top faculty and better student-teacher ratios. And the state would gain from the innovation that comes out of top public universities. I pressed Cigarroa some about expanding the amount that the UT System spends each year from its endowment, which puts UT in the top five or so of university endowments nationwide. I have no desire to see UT draw it down in a way that harms future generations. Hey, I have kids that I would like to go there someday! But UT should at least look at easing up on its yearly drawdown, which regents recently moved from 4.75 of the fund's value to 5 percent. That changed ended up flowing a few million more into UT-Austin. So, here's my question: How much could UT-Austin get if regents voted to start drawing down some more each year, eventually reaching, say, 5.5 percent or even 6 percent? (My understanding is that Yale spends 6 percent.) And what impact would that have on the multi-billion dollar endowment over time? I don't know the answers, but maybe a little more liberal use of the endowment could help UT get enough extra revenues without having to worry about those funding formulas. Comments |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bio
E-mail
I don't understand this state's support for only two tier one institutions. It seems to me that we need to be concentrating more on supporting other public schools in Texas becoming part of that tier so future generations will have the opportunities that students in other states do. California and New York each out number Texas by far when it comes to funding and supporting multiple tier one campuses and thus give more students better opportunities. The biggest problem is that UT and A&M work hard to keep the other public institutions out of tier one. I attended a smaller regional institution because they have the best undergraduate program in the country for what was my major. At that time the institution began offering their first doctorate program in that department. During the application process both UT & A&M worked against the granting of this program. This is not in the interest of Texas nor the future of out economy. We need to find ways to open opportunities for more students by elevating more institutions to tier one campuses and making sure UT & A&M don't block such moves.