June 2, 2009

Ross Ramsey

Freshman Speaker Joe Straus, with a handful of members in tow, declared the just-ended legislative session a success.

The audio is here, or you can use the player below.

June 2, 2009

By Mike Hailey

Capitol Inside Editor

The Capitol Inside Best of the Legislature list for 2009 is a moderates' dream team that by no accidental coincidence reflects the center-lane approach that seemed to define the regular session that ground to a half late Monday night.

At a Texas Capitol where the House was almost evenly divided and the Senate was forced to work in a bipartisan fashion as a result of the two-thirds rule, it's probably fitting that six Republicans and six Democrats made first team this year on the web site's biennial all-star squad. The House placed seven members on the top tier of the list of the best performances by legislators during the 140-day regular session while

June 2, 2009

By Ali Mustansir

State legislators began opening new doors for Texas universities to attain Tier One status by passing House Bill 51 on May 31.

The bill provides five incentives for universities to work toward Tier One status. Funding is allocated every other year.

Research University Development Fund — $126 Million — Allows for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to distribute funds appropriated by the legislature or any other funds among qualifying universities. Amount appropriated is based on annual research expenditures of each university.

June 3, 2009

Editorial

WE SAY Let college admissions do its job.

At the end of May, Texas decided to cap the number of students its state universities were required to admit under an admissions guarantee that it had created to increase diversity.

We've all heard that United States' K-12 education is worsening. The educational system needs to be reconstructed; however, in the meantime, states have been motivating students to take it upon themselves to improve their learning by providing incentives for doing well

Thursday, June 4, 2009

W. Gardner Selby

any expected the 2010 political season to launch like a thunderous horse race this summer.

As soon as July 4, the prevailing scenario went, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry would kick off competing Republican campaigns for governor, prompting others ranging from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to Attorney General Greg Abbott to state Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin to clarify their political goals by Labor Day.

Texas needs more great universities. And we're likely to get them.

Posted on Tuesday, June 4

Editorial

Just when we're about to despair of Texas, our legislators confuse us by doing something really, really smart — like making sure that our state has enough top-notch universities.

Texas now has three "Tier One" universities: Two public (The University of Texas–Austin, Texas A&M) and one private (Rice). We need more. Every year, as high school graduates decamp for Tier One schools in other states, our state suffers a net loss of 6,000 of the best and

Thurssday, June 4, 2009

By Andrew Martinez

A bill that would allow seven state universities to compete for tier-one research university status cleared the House and Senate on Sunday and is awaiting approval from Gov. Rick Perry.

Authored by state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, the bill would create three funding initiatives and establish monetary incentives for emerging research universities to achieve national recognition as major research institutions. The seven universities vying for funds are the University

Thursday, June 4, 2009

They say every journey begins with one step. The three of us watched the state of Texas embark on a journey this week with a giant leap toward excellence – the passage of a bill creating competitively awarded incentives to support the emergence of national research universities.

Seven universities identified as emerging research schools – including the University of Houston, the University of North Texas, the University of Texas at Arlington, UT-Dallas, UT-El Paso, UT-San Antonio and Texas Tech University – are the most obvious beneficiaries of this visionary legislation, which sets up pools of incentive funding aimed at encouraging good institutions to move toward greatness in

Saturday, June 4, 2009

Editorial

While some measures fell apart and others were left hanging in the final days of the legislative session, Texas lawmakers did come up with a solid compromise regarding the state's automatic admission law. The compromise gives the University of Texas at Austin the authority needed to better manage freshman enrollment without imposing limits on other colleges and universities that aren't experiencing difficulty with what's called the top 10 percent rule.

The 1997 law requires Texas public universities to automatically admit students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. It has helped UT-Austin, Texas A&M and some other universities maintain and increase racial, ethnic and geographical diversity after a legal ruling — the 1996 Hopwood decision — banned the use of affirmative action admissions. The U.S. Supreme Court has since

Statewide Campaign Lineups for 2010 Will Fall into Place Soon Once Questions Surrounding KBH and Dewhurst Have Answers

June 4, 2009

By Mike Hailey

Capitol Inside Editor

As Republicans and Democrats wonder whether U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison will pull the trigger on a gubernatorial bid, the list of Texas politicians with higher ambitions is swelling rapidly with the lineups for statewide races in 2010 getting ready to start taking shape now that the Legislature's regular session has ended and the Fourth of July is just one month away.