Early in the session, there was much talk about how the time was right to invest in new university campus facilities. But a bill to issue bonds to get projects off the ground never managed to do so itself. Could it get another chance in the special session?
Higher Education
Coverage of universities, colleges, student issues, and education policy shaping Texas’ campuses, from The Texas Tribune.
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Criminal Justice
20 Weeks in Which the Budget Held Sway
The 82nd Texas Legislature’s regular session ends as it started, with lawmakers arguing about a shrunken state budget and redistricting.
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Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Root profiles conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan, Aaronson on the Senate’s flare-up over an airport groping ban, Grissom on some twisted logic in the state’s same-sex marriage laws, Murphy and Macrander expand and refresh our public employee salary database, yours truly with the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll results on politics, issues, the state’s finances, and race, Ramshaw’s report on how some of the governor’s former aides now represent clients who want more money in the state budget, M. Smith on last-minute efforts to save education legislation that didn’t make it through the process, Tan reports on efforts to finish the state budget before the session ends on Monday, and Dehn with the video week in review: The best of our best from May 9 to 13, 2011.
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Higher Education
A&M Regent Willing to Throw Out Controversial “Solution”?
A side comment by Texas A&M University System regent that was caught on camera during Thursday’s board of regents meeting indicates that the group might be willing to eliminate a controversial teaching award program.
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Higher Education
Budget Deal Preserves Much, but Not All, of TEXAS Grants
A proposal adopted by the Legislature’s budget conference committee Thursday would provide funding for TEXAS Grants for about 33,100 incoming freshmen — far less than the number of eligible students but better than what the House originally proposed.
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Higher Education
Updated: “Seven Solutions” Are “Distraction,” A&M Regents Chairman Says
At a meeting of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, chairman Richard Box appeared to shrug off a controversial set of “breakthrough solutions” for higher education, saying it is time to “move on.”
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Higher Education
Tier-One Prize Money Bill Passes State Senate
After hitting a brief snag, the bill that creates a mechanism for the leaders in the race to become the state’s next tier-one university passed the state Senate today.
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Health care
Budget Notes: School Finance Remains the Key
Lawmakers made progress today on solving the current budget deficit but still haven’t solved the major problem in the 2012-13 budget: school finance.
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Higher Education
A&M Regents Chairman Asks Faculty for “Patience and Trust”
On the eve of an important meeting of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, chairman Richard Box issued a systemwide, tone-setting memo.
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Higher Education
The Latest Texas vs. Feds Dispute? A Tiny Lizard
Could a brown, beady-eyed, two-and-a-half-inch lizard really threaten millions of barrels of Texas oil? West Texas lawmakers are worried that adding the sagebrush lizard to the endangered species list would do just that.