TEXAS COLLEGE TUITION HIKE - Most of the Lone Star State's six public universities plan to raise undergraduate tuition next year. These annual increases have been small but they add up over time; especially when you add living costs while at school. Texas state schools will have tuition increases ranging from 1 to 3.7 percent. Sandy Baum with the Urban Institute explains to Texas Public Radio that these increases, however slight, do matter. "There's a lot of focus on annual increases, and of course what really matters to students is how much they pay, and that's the result of the cumulative increases over time." Baum says tuition increases affect students from middle and low-income families the most."For students at the lowest income levels, they're getting
enough grant aid, if you add their federal and state grants together to cover their tuition. So it's not so much the tuition prices as it is how do you live while you're in school when it's really hard to be working full time. It's been a struggle to pay all your expenses while you're in college." The Texas Senate approved a two-year undergraduate tuition freeze for public universities last session, but it failed to pass the House. State appropriations for some schools have been reduced, and the Texas Senate has been pushing to overhaul the way universities are funded.
