April 30, 2015 5:27 PM

Senate votes for new controls on college tuition

Texans “expect affordability. It’s critical to the future economy of Texas.”

After a back and forth over turning back the clock on deregulation of tuition, the Texas Senate on Thursday did vote to put new controls in place on rates that people across the political spectrum have criticized.

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, failed in his effort to really turn back the clock.

As Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, told his colleagues on the floor, student loans are now the second highest debt college graduates are carrying, right behind a home mortgage. Many in the Senate, including some of the freshman members, lay that at the door of veteran lawmakers, who decided to leave tuition rates to colleges and universities during a state budget crunch in 2003.

Seliger’s bill would stop universities from raising tuition if they failed to meet yet-to-be-defined performance metrics. Then the amount of the tuition increase would be limited to inflation, plus a percentage of growth.

Ellis made his statement through amendments he knew would fail. First, Ellis suggested financial aid should be indexed to inflation, just as funding was. Ellis called Seliger’s approach novel and untested. That vote went down 19-10.

By Kimberly Reeves