“We’re being asked to do more with less,” said Matthew Fuller, associate professor of higher education leadership at Sam Houston State University.

Legislative solutions

In January, Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, filed SB 18 and SB 19. SB 18 would eliminate a rule requiring public universities to use a portion of tuition revenue to fund scholarships for students with financial need; SB 19 would freeze tuition prices for students for four years. 

Another bill, SB 543, also filed by Seliger, would require state schools to meet performance-based metrics—such as graduation rates, the number of undergraduate degrees awarded and average length of student enrollment—before being allowed to raise tuition.

“Tuition relief and predictability is necessary for Texas students and families,” Seliger said. “SB 19 provides much-needed stability for those planning to attend or attending college. Together with SB 543, we will have the opportunity to implement a long-term tuition reform solution, which holds institutions accountable and ensures they remain accessible and affordable.”

As of press time, SB 19 and SB 543 were in committee, and SB 18 had been voted out of committee. If passed, these laws would go into effect Sept. 1.

Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said he believes the downturn affecting the energy sector gives the bills a good chance of passing.

“A general economic downturn puts more emphasis on how fast costs have been going up like it is for taxpayers for SB2 or tuition like in SB 19, there is generally a much more focus on those types of problems in these types of economic downturn sessions in these economic sessions than it is in an upturn,” Bettencourt said. “I think a good bill will come out of the Senate.”

Raymund Paredes, higher education commissioner for the THECB, said it would be difficult to assess how the bills would immediately affect universities and students. He said attempts in other states, such as California and Montana, to freeze tuition costs have only resulted in temporarily offsetting costs, with a return to deregulated prices immediately after the freeze.

“Sometimes, the tuition freezes essentially result in delaying increases for a couple of years, and then when the regulation expires, the institutions raise the tuition to exactly the same level that they would have if they had raised tuition incrementally from one year,” Paredes said.

Tuition on the rise

Although tuition has increased in recent years, the price of attending a higher education institution was not always decided at the university level.

In 2003, the 78th Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3015, which granted public universities the ability to charge varying tuition rates with no cap on the designated tuition per academic period. Prior to HB 3015, the Legislature had the authority to mandate the same rate be charged across the state for public higher education institutions, according to the THECB.

Since tuition was deregulated, tuition has risen at public universities by as much as 178 percent—or an average of 70 percent after adjusting for inflation—from 2003-15, with students paying a statewide average of $1,687 more per semester, according to the THECB. 

At the University of Houston, total tuition rose from $2,266 per semester to $5,404 per semester from 2003-15, a 139 percent increase. Meanwhile, tuition at Texas A&M University and SHSU increased 108 percent and 156 percent, respectively. 

However, the universities attribute such increases to a decrease in state funding per student, enrollment growth and an increase in costs.

“We have to increase our budget in order to recruit and retain our exceptional faculty, expand [program offerings] and services, and cover fixed cost increases and other cost increases that are driven by enrollment growth,” said Julia May, associate director of communications and public information officer at SHSU. “These increases are necessary to meet the demands that our students expect from an education that’s going to prepare them for the workforce.”

Fuller said comparing costs before and after deregulation does not take into account yearly costs to maintain buildings, adding campus services and programs to meet enrollment growth and demand, and an increased number of institutions fighting for the same amount of state funding. Other factors, such as investments in campus amenities to attract more students, also play a role in tuition increases . 

Fuller said the state’s funding per student declined by 43 percent from 1987-2012. To bridge the gap, colleges roll some of the cost into tuition. In 2015 the Legislature allocated $15.1 million for higher education instruction, financial aid and research. The House introduced an initial budget this session that would allocate $15.6 million, or 7.1 percent of the House’s total proposed budget. The Senate has also proposed 7.1 percent, or $15.08 million, of its proposed budget for higher education.

At Texas A&M, the percentage of the university system’s operating costs composed of state contributions has dropped from 55 percent to 38 percent from 2002-16, according to university officials. At UH, the state’s contributions to the college system decreased from 64 percent to 24 percent from 1994-2016, and SHSU’s main Huntsville campus received 38 percent of operating costs from the state in 2016. 

“The No. 1 reason [for tuition increases] is the support of higher education is declining, and we’ve got to make that up somewhere or we’ve got to cut services,” Fuller said. “Since [students] don’t want us to cut services because they want certain degrees, we’ve got to make it up somewhere.”

Affording education

Although Texas ranks seventh nationwide in higher education affordability, students enrolling in a public four-year university in Texas typically need to borrow more than $4,400 annually to pay for expenses, according to the 2016 College Affordability Diagnosis from the Penn Graduate School of Education.

Paredes said one of the greatest challenges for colleges and families is finding enough funding to cover all students in need of tuition relief. He said as grant money on the state and federal levels falls short, higher education officials will have to find solutions.

“We recognize that the current model of relying on either federal grant aid or state grant aid, primarily through the Texas grant program, will be very difficult to sustain in the future,” he said.

However, universities such as UH are limiting rising costs for students by implementing a program that freezes tuition for students who meet certain requirements, said Shawn Lindsey, director of media relations and digital programming.

In 2014, UH implemented UH in 4, a fixed-tuition initiative program for freshmen and transfers. Students are required to complete 30 credit hours per year and remain in good academic standing to receive a fixed tuition rate for four consecutive years. Texas A&M also offers a similar program freezing tuition for four years for incoming freshmen.

“The development of these programs and the fixed-tuition model is largely in response to rising tuition rates statewide fueled by long-term decreasing support from state revenues,” Lindsey said.

To help students navigate financial aid paperwork and application process, Fort Bend ISD holds financial aid information nights at selected campuses. The sessions are open to all FBISD high students and their parents, and provide an overview of scholarships, grants, loans and the FAFSA process. 

Dates of the information nights will be posted on the FBISD website.

“We want students and parents to leave these events with an increased awareness of the many financial aid opportunities that exist,” said Amanda Bubela, FBISD spokesperson. “Our college and career readiness advisors encourage students to apply for any scholarships that they may be eligible to receive.”