COLLEGE STATION, Texas — After an affordability study, the Texas A&M University System and 5 other large university systems in the lone star state are putting forth efforts to allocate nearly $1 billion toward higher education.
“We're very confident that the leadership in the House and the Senate appropriation and finance committees seem to be hopefully on board with this, and we think legislatures will be as well,” said Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp.
A portion of the funding is set to provide free college tuition to military veterans and their children as well as cover university employees' health insurance.
“When you look at the broad scheme of things, the legislature will have over $30 billion in funds to spend," explained Sharp. "A billion dollars is a significant amount of money to universities. On the large scale of the state budget, you know, not so much.”
Chancellor Sharp says this is a good deal for average working families and was designed with them in mind. The added funding to benefit students and the tuition freeze allow families' money to be used for other things.
“There's tons and tons of scholarships and help for kids and families on the lower economic side, but the middle class winds up in the squeeze. And so what we had in mind as we were designing this, obviously it helps all of them, but our target really was middle-class families,” said Sharp.
While the funding is certainly something that those in need come sooner rather than later, the state budget is one of the last things that ends up being passed in the state capitol. Furthermore, Chancellor Sharp has stated that he doesn't see any expedited plans for the proposition in the future, and expects more steps to be made towards making this proposition a reality in May.