Perry’s $10,000 dream

First, Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature cut higher education funding. Then, they passed the buck to university regents by removing caps on tuition, starting in 2003, and tuition started rocketing ever upward.

Now, Perry is telling universities to brace for more budget cuts.

So, imagine how thrilled college administrators must have been today to hear Perry, in his State of the State speech, call for a fouryear tuition freeze for entering freshmen and then top that off by “challenging” them to develop bachelor’s degree programs costing no more than $10,000, including books.

“Let’s leverage webbased instruction, innovative teaching techniques and aggressive efficiency measures to reach that goal,” he said.

Aggressive efficiency measures? That could mean things like cramming even more students into megasized classes, letting seniors (instead of tenured faculty) teach freshmen and using labs with outdated or imaginary equipment.

Mary Aldridge Dean, executive director of the Texas Faculty Association, said Perry’s $10,000 dream was a “statement out of fantasy land.”

“With increased student populations and cuts in funding, the numbers simply do not add up to quality education for Texas students,” she said.