Cuts to universities in Lone Star State disproportionate

Due to the impact of the worldwide recession, the state of Texas is facing a significant budget revenue gap in the 2012-2013 biennium. A reduction in available revenue has led to a budget deficit and projections have been made estimating a shortfall between $18 billion to $27 billion.

Recognizing the seriousness of the budgetary constraints, reductions must be made and spending needs to be limited. Over the last year, the Texas Tech University System has identified ways to reduce costs and has worked to return nearly $37.5 million to the state in the last two years.

We understand additional reductions will be necessary and will do our part to help address this deficit. However, the state’s economic challenges should be borne equally by all government entities, and not unduly, as it has previously fallen on higher education’s shoulders. 

Early last year, state agencies were instructed to cut their current biennial spending by 5 percent, and higher education institutions honored this request by returning more than $518 million to the state. However, some state programs including welfare services and some sectors of prison funding were exempted from the budget cuts.

As a result, universities in Texas suffered a disproportionate share of these cuts. Higher education institutions, which represent only 12.5 percent of the current state budget, carried the heaviest burden when compared to all other state agencies, amounting to 41 percent of the required reductions returned.

Despite these initial spending reductions, an additional 2.5 percent in cuts was recently requested. These cuts have made operating more and more difficult during a time when enrollment at Texas colleges and universities has reached record numbers.

In fall 2010, the component institutions of the Texas Tech University System each celebrated enrollment records, totaling more than 42,000 students. Efforts are underway to reach 40,000 students at Texas Tech University, 5,000 students at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and 10,000 students at Angelo State University by 2020.

We are committed to providing students with a high-quality education, advancing the state through innovative research and serving the citizens of Texas with exceptional health care. Though, doing so without adequate state funding will not be possible.

In 1990, approximately 56 percent of the Texas Tech University System’s funding was state appropriated. This percentage has steadily declined over the years with approximately 36 percent of our budget coming from the state in 2010.

While it is still early in this legislative session, Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1 propose severe cuts to higher education institutions for the next biennium.

We will be forced to reconsider the workforce and workload critical to our mission, which brings even greater concern to our organization and other university systems as it is our role to produce the working professionals who develop new knowledge and support economic prosperity and growth.

As Texas faces trying economic conditions, bold steps must be taken to maintain the state’s economic wellbeing and ensure its continued success. We have made cuts and we will make more, but these reductions must be applied across the board to all state agencies.

It is vital that everyone do their fair share to provide a solution for the greater good of the state and Texans.