May 24, 2011
Nolan Hicks
The Texas House approved a measure tonight that would change the dates of Texas carries primary and runoff elections in a bid to give soldiers and sailors serving overseas a better chance to participate in the process.
Passage of this legislation was needed to comply with the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, which mandates ballots be provided to military personnel at least 45 days before an election.
May 24, 2011
Erin Mulvaney
The Senate passed a measure Tuesday that would link part of higher education funding to the student and university "outcomes" and performance.
The bill carried by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, in the Senate would reconfigure the universities' formula funding to allow the state to tie no more than10 percent of the funding to graduate rates and other outcomes.
Currently, funding is based on enrollment at the beginning of each semester.
May 23, 2011
Robert T. Garrett
AUSTIN — Texas’ state universities and colleges would provide financial aid to 41,000 fewer students over the next two years under a proposed budget agreement, and key senators warned Monday that will narrow the path to upward mobility for minority and poor youths.
Families will struggle more to send their children to college because of cuts in the emerging two-year budget, which will reduce scholarship recipients at state schools by 27 percent, said Sens. Steve Ogden , R-Bryan, and Judith Zaffirini , D-Laredo.
“That budget is going to make it harder for poor kids to go to college because we don’t have enough financial aid in there,” said Ogden, the Senate’s chief budget negotiator. He also predicted that tuition would rise because of other cuts to the universities’ state funding.
Rep. Dan Branch is Guest Conductor for Special Capitol Presentation Performed by HPHS Orchestra
In April, the Highlander Strings traveled to Corpus Christi and participated in the Southern Star Music Festival held at the new Performing Arts Center at Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. The orchestra received a Superior rating and was selected "Best in Class Orchestra" in the 4A division.
May 20, 2011
Patrick Graves
Also seeks biennial legislative reviews of program
In the ongoing debate over making colleges more productive, a Senate committee is taking a somewhat different tack than the House on linking higher education funding to student and institutional performance.
The House wants to make consideration of outcomes-based funding mandatory each budget cycle. The Senate’s higher ed chair is opting for more legislative flexibility while limiting the amount of appropriations subject to student success measures.
May 19, 2011
Robert T. Garrett
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and the Senate's five budget negotiators marched into the House chamber at 2:15 p.m. Thursday, bearing what the Republican lieutenant governor called "an offer" to resolve the budget, education and rainy-day and "non-tax revenue" questions that have bedeviled leaders all week.
Dewhurst, holding a folder, said, "The Senate has an offer."
May 20, 2011
Editorial
Imagine seeing final passage of landmark eyewitness identification reform in the Texas Senate last week through the eyes of Johnny Pinchback, a Dallas man freed from prison this month after DNA exoneration for rapes he didn’t commit.
Pinchback was in the Senate gallery to see a businesslike, 31-0 vote after no debate. Now headed to the governor’s desk, the bill (HB 215) pushes police to adopt modern lineup procedures so witnesses don’t finger the wrong suspect — the type of ghastly error that put Pinchback and dozens of other innocent Texans behind bars.
A Texas A&M campus in Sugar Land?
May 19, 2011
Zen T.C. Zheng
How do you like the idea of graduating from the University of Houston's Sugar Land and Cinco Ranch campuses as an Aggie?
It's a dispute quietly brewing, unbeknownst to many in Fort Bend County.
Geanie Morrison, a Republican state lawmaker from Victoria, has been pushing for transferring the University of Houston-Victoria and its Sugar Land and Cinco Ranch teaching centers into the Texas A&M University System.
May 21, 2011
Semenza
The date of a high-profile Victoria meeting of two Texas chancellors and state legislators remains unclear.
When Rep. Dan Branch called for the meeting, the Dallas Republican asked the group to meet here in June. As of Saturday, no official date had been set, the Advocate confirmed.
May 23, 2011
Michael Quinn Sullivan
Texas’ universities have a dirty little secret: They don’t want taxpayers, parents or students looking too closely at their books. And they certainly don’t want to answer questions about performance.
It would seem the high priests of academia -- the faculty senates, the administrators, the ivory tower crowd -- are opposed intractably to releasing meaningful information about how dollars are spent and to what effect.
