 "Photo:")
Another bill proposing tax free textbooks has been filed. This time for the 2009 session. This is a great start in helping college students weather a worsening economy and raising tuition cost. However, given the drastic changes in the Texas Legislature, most notably a more moderate Joe Strauss as speaker, and the control and popularity Democrats are enjoying in Washington, it seems a little anticlimactic.
With everything that is wrong with higher education funding in Texas, and the promise of millions of dollars for education coming in as part of the stimulus deal, one would think that Texas Democrats would use this chance to really clean up the huge mess the last few sessions made of education.
The textbook bill should be an easy enough bill to pass. Removing the tax on textbooks has been proposed in the last two sessions by Senator Judith Zaffirini. In 2007 it passed unanimously in the Senate, only to die in committee in the, then Craddick controlled, House. This bill has a real chance at passing this time, especially now that it has much less time allotted for the tax free sales than has been asked for in the past.
In the 2005 session equivalent of this bill, there was a proposed two ten day periods, one per semester, in which students could buy books tax free. The projected loss of state revenue for last session's version of this bill was just under 70 million, opponents worried that it would hurt the state to lose that money, but students are just going to take the money they save on textbooks and put it right back into the economy.
So, while the tax free textbook bill is getting a lot of much deserved attention and support, all the other education reform ideas that have been floating around for the last few years are nowhere to be found. For years these proposals were seemingly on hold because there was no way they would pass in such a conservative legislature, a watered down tax free textbook bill was the best anyone could hope for, but now, when truly system changing laws have a chance to pass, no one is stepped up to ask for them.
There has yet to be a bill filed for tuition regulation, or one making financial aid easier to obtain. No one is fighting to overturn the ridiculous six drop rule, or help students get cheaper health insurance. If even one of these were to pass into law, the tax on textbooks would seem like a small price to pay.
Be the first to comment on this article!