Zaffirini and Powell Escalate Texas Higher Ed Fight
An increasingly bitter disagreement over the future of the University of Texas at Austin between University of Texas System regents' chairman Gene Powell and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, is ratcheting up the ongoing debate surrounding higher education in Texas.
Any thought that the tense atmosphere would calm following the departure of controversial employee Rick O'Donnell from the UT System can likely be laid to rest. This morning, Zaffirini, the chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Committee and the most vocal critic of reformist regents, specifically called out Powell, saying in a statement, "Since his election in February he ...
Comments (11)
Michael JJ Messer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I really hope they can manage to get Perry's cronies out of positions of power in education. I might decide to not go to UT for my masters if they continue this way.
Luisa Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
what's so surprising about anti-intellectual powers-that-be in Texas? Like the Murchison/Hunt/Birch Society crazies of the past, Texas GOP pols of today fear an educated populace
Luisa Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
you know, education is the same as communism in Texas!
ravenshroud
This entire article does the reader a disservice. It allows the politicians who use words that have no innate value other than to elicit emotion to prevail. Cadillac, chevy, etc have no meaning to education. The only value education has and the ONLY marker we should be suing is DOES this degree allow for the student to become gainfully and successfully employed.
Nothing else matters. Higher education is about creating a job opportunity for someone willing to pay the price of the education. It is working, or it isn't.
Tim Hurst via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The gop will rape The University and turn it into an a/m. Terrible
V Marshall
As Texas already has plenty of schools which adhere to the "Chevy" model of education (most of which have graduation rates below 50%) how about they just leave UT Austin alone. If they aren't going to leave it alone, how about they settle on a path so my son can decide whether to remain there or to transfer to Georgia Tech or Cal. They both seem eager to have out-of-state Engineering students who are looking to get a solid education rather than a useless diploma from a third rate school.
Earl Barry
How can offering an education to people at a reasonable price be communism? Ridiculous. From what I read, the panel wants to make the education both accessible and affordable...and the elitists don't want it to happen. So, who is really stopping the opportunities for others who have little money from getting an education? GOP or Liberals? Looks to me as if it's the Libs on this one.
Connor Kilpatrick via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Of course the right hates public school! Because an educated populace would get mad about stuff like, you know, billionaires paying half the tax rate of teachers (or none at all), corporations and the wealthy plundering public resources for private gain, etc. Keep 'em dumb and smiley, says the GOP! Else they might find out that in the rest of the developed world, the non-rich live--when compared with American standards--extremely well.
kevin mcnamara
So this is the Texas GOP believes in the "run it like a business" philosophy? where else is trashing your company seen as fiduciary responsibility?
Ben Wind via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Senator Zaffarini doesn't care about public education. She killed SB 5 over an amendment that would allow licensed concealed carry on campus. As a college student, I am more worried about how I am going to pay for school, not if I am going to be shot by a licensed CHL holder
Horacio Vela via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Actually she cares a whole lot about public education. But she's against the concealed weapons amendment.