Shortchanging higher education

The Texas Legislative Budget Board released an initial draft of the 2012-2013 state budget on Jan. 18.

The 140 day legislative session, that will last until May, must deal with the state's current multi-billion dollar deficit, projected to be as high as $27 billion.

Because of the financial woes threatening Texas, both the House and Senate have called for drastic cuts in all sectors of government, from health and human services to criminal justice.

Hit especially hard will be public and higher education – specifically, public, two-year colleges that depend highly on state funding.

The House proposal plans to slash financial aid programs by $431 million, while the Senate's proposal includes a $381 million cut.

Under the proposals of both chambers, the number of Texas Grant recipients in 2013 would drop from 86,830 to 27,135, according to the Legislative Budget Board.

"With people like me, who are the first in their family to attend college, anything helps. Financial aid programs make such a difference. To take that away from us is like taking away that chance of bettering ourselves, our families and our communities," said Marcos Larios, Riverside student government association senator.

The House proposal plans to close down four community colleges – Brazosport College, Frank Phillips College, Odessa College and Ranger College – as part of the plan to cut $145 million in state funding for all two-year colleges in Texas.

"I think this will damage the path that Texas is on," said Linda Young, ACC special assistant to the president for external affairs.

"We really don't understand how you can say that you value economic growth and a strong business sector if you devalue education. It can't equate. It's a foolish approach, and it can't be positive. You just can't come out with the right outcomes if you say, ‘Well, sure, everybody can be educated as long as they can afford it. Oh, but we're cutting financial aid, too.' It makes no sense. I'm amazed that they chose to make this significant of a cut. It just seems a little unfair."

Currently, the state budget is $187.5 billion, with $88.5 billion in general (non-allocated) revenue. The House's proposal for the upcoming biennium calls for a budget of $156.4 billion – a $31.1 billion difference, or a 16.6% decline – and general revenue at $79.3 billion – a $9.2 billion decrease or a 10.4% drop.

The Senate, however, proposes a slightly larger budget of $158.7 billion, or a $28.8 billion decrease from the current budget.

Both chambers won't seek new revenue enhancers, such as raising taxes or using money set aside in the state's $9.2 billion Rainy Day Fund, an emergency reserve to be used in times of economic shortfall, in order to balance out the proposed budget.

Because of the severity of the budget cuts, ACC may have to resort to increases in tuition and less expenditures on technology and capitol spending in order to stay afloat in a period of booming enrollment.

"There's almost certainly going to be a tuition increase, but we have no idea how much," said Ben Ferrell, executive vice president of finance and administration.

"We've done things in our budget to scale it back so that when this day came, it wouldn't shock the college and cause us to resort to radical measures. It's a pretty hefty chunk, but we aren't really surprised at how big it is. Still, it's sort of the extreme of what we were expecting," he said.

Despite the major cuts in funding, the college is determined to prevent faculty layoffs and keep student support services in place.

"We don't want to cut faculty or student support, because that's where it hurts first," said Young. "There are ways that the administration will work very hard to make sure the students aren't affected. That's very important."

Following the House and the Senate proposals, Governor Rick Perry will unveil his own budget plan during the first week of February.