The price to attend a public university in Texas has more than doubled this century. Why?
The Texas Tribune partnered with the education publisher Pearson to answer that and other questions for Texas students.
The short answer: Enrollment has increased, per-student state funding has gone down and universities have to find ways to pay the bills. Often, they do it by raising tuition.
Watch the video above to learn more — or read our related coverage below:
- The University of Texas System has a $20 billion endowment that gives the system a huge annual pot of money. Most of that money is spent on big ticket projects. But just a sliver of it goes to student financial aid.
- Gov. Rick Perry urged Texas universities to find a way to offer degrees for less than $10,000. Texas A&M Commerce did just that. So why doesn’t it want freshman pursuing it?
- To go to a public university, students in Texas now pay more than double what they did 15 years ago. So students are plugging gaps in their finances by making a host of lifestyle changes, including eating erratically, unhealthily or just going hungry.
Source: Texas Tribune Blue Government News
