A victory for higher education
Saturday, June 6, 2009
James R. Huffines
Chairman, UT System Board of Regents
As our nation's economy continues to struggle — and its impact has roiled higher education to sometimes painful extremes — there is a bright spot in Texas.
In fact, Texas might well be in the higher education driver's seat for the entire nation after the 2009 legislative session wrapped up.
Lawmakers made a bold decision to invest significantly in higher education, putting the state's public universities in a position to gain a competitive edge against their peers.
Perhaps chief among the accomplishments was a bill legislators passed aimed at elevating to national tier one status up to seven public higher education institutions in Texas. With only two public (and one private) tier one institutions, Texas has been at a decided competitive disadvantage when compared with California, which has nine such institutions, and New York, which has seven.
The bill, which awaits Gov. Rick Perry's signature, would create a $50 million matching fund for research-focused philanthropy to help prospective tier one schools compete nationally for some of the best and brightest students and faculty.
And it would be joined by another half-billion dollars to sustain these institutions when they attain tier one status. The creation of a National Research University Fund will go before the voters in November, and I hope they will add their support to that of the Legislature to expand these institutions, which could add so much to the Texas economy and society.
On another front, legislators authorized significantly more money by way of formula funding for our institutions of higher learning — about a quarter-billion dollars more than the last biennium. And that comes at a time when many other state legislatures are implementing, or contemplating, deep cuts to the higher education institutions.
Included in that formula funding measure is an 18 percent increase for graduate medical education, which would go a long way toward keeping badly needed physicians in Texas. Other funds were authorized to add faculty and capacity to classes for nursing and health care professionals.
Additional funds ($33 million) were allocated to bolster the competitive position of the University of Texas and Texas A&M University — our existing public tier one institutions.
This session also brought much-needed assistance to the hurricane-damaged University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Through a variety of relief measures, the state is poised to extend about $450 million in assistance to UTMB.
Other measures of note include:
• A measure to issue close to $450 million in bonds to fund research and prevention grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
• An expanded pool of financial aid, including $185.9 million more for need-based TEXAS Grants, as well as $10 million more for Texas Educational Opportunity Grants to help community college students, with the hope that more of them will transfer to four-year institutions.
• An extra $94 million approved for Texas' Emerging Technology Fund, which helps transfer discoveries made at higher education institutions into commercial enterprises.
The University of Texas System is grateful that the members of the Legislature, who recognize the fundamental importance of higher education to our state's future and, in response, have made forward-thinking decisions. Let's pledge to continue to work diligently to ensure that Texas has the best academic and health institutions in the country.
Huffines lives in Austin.