As Texas lawmakers consider what to do with an unprecedented $32.7 billion state surplus, leaders of the state’s six largest public university systems are pitching that nearly $1 billion be allocated toward higher education.
If lawmakers agree, these university chancellors pledge to hold tuition flat for all undergraduate students for the next two academic years.
In a letter sent to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, Senate Finance Committee Chair Joan Huffman and House Finance Committee Chair Greg Bonnen in mid-December, the university chancellors asked for more general-revenue funding as well as more funding for university employee health insurance and the program that gives free college tuition to military veterans and their children.
