Welcome to The Texas Tribune’s “Texplainer” series, where we answer questions from readers like you. More in this series
The price to attend a public university in Texas has more than doubled this century. Why?
The Texas Tribune partnered with the education publisher Pearson to answer that and other questions for Texas students.
The short answer: Enrollment has increased, per-student state funding has gone down and universities have to find ways to pay the bills. Often, they do it by raising tuition.
Watch the video above to learn more — or read our related coverage below:
- Gov. Rick Perry urged Texas universities to find a way to offer degrees for less than $10,000. Texas A&M Commerce did just that. So why doesn’t it want freshman pursuing it?
- To go to a public university, students in Texas now pay more than double what they did 15 years ago. So students are plugging gaps in their finances by making a host of lifestyle changes, including eating erratically, unhealthily or just going hungry.
Learn about The Texas Tribune’s policies, including our partnership with The Trust Project to increase transparency in news.
