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News

Enrollment outpaces Legislature's fiscal increases 
for state universities

By Tina Marie Macias
Senior Staff Writer

The 79th Texas Legislature will have to juggle the mental health system, education finance and property taxes on top of funding for higher education.

The 78th Legislature appropriated $15.1 billion to higher education in fiscal years 2004 and 2005.

Though that's an $820 million, or 5.7 percent, increase from the previous session, the state's college enrollment increased by more than 189,000 students in the past four years, a 22 percent jump. 

State government resources account for only a portion of university funding; money also comes from tuition and fees, federal funding and a variety of other sources.

The legislative portion of college funding, however, is a complex mix of funding formulas, special item requests and other appropriations. About 60 percent of the state's appropriations to public universities are given though funding formulas. 

The instruction and operations formulas assign weights based on costs for teaching courses in lower-division baccalaureate, upper-division baccalaureate, master's, doctoral and professional classes. For example, in the recommendations for the 2006-07 biennium, a semester credit hour taught in lower-division liberal arts course carries a 1.0, while a semester credit hour in the doctoral nursing program has a weight of 16.32.

Special-item appropriations totaled $714.6 million for the 2004-05 biennium. UH's special-item requests fund specific programs like the Texas Center for Superconductivity.

Other funding sources include the Permanent University Fund, Higher Education Assistance Fund and tuition revenue bonds.

All public institutions of higher education except community colleges receive funding for construction and other capital projects from PUF or HEAF, which were established by the Texas Constitution.

Income from the PUF is deposited into the Available University Fund. Two-thirds is appropriated to The University of Texas System and one-third to the Texas A&M University System. About $714 million in AUF funds were available for the 2004-05 biennium. 

Institutions not benefiting from PUF receive $100 million annual appropriations from HEAF. HEAF appropriations totaled $350 million for the 2004-05 biennium.

The Legislature, on a case-by-case basis, may also authorize universities to issue specific amounts of tuition revenue bonds to fund specific projects. The 78th Legislature authorized $204.4 million in new tuition revenue bond authority and appropriated $13.6 million for related debt service, as well as $249.6 million for debt service on bonds from the previous session. 

Funding for community college is a focus for the Legislature; state appropriations to those institutions decreased by 2.8 percent in 2004-05, while they accounted for about 61 percent of the state's higher education enrollment growth.

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