Perry touts higher ed accountability, responds to rumors: Political attack on universities denied.

Gov. Rick Perry told Texas educators Tuesday, May 15, 2012, that he agrees with the University of Texas regents’ decision to impose a two-year freeze on undergraduate tuition for state residents, saying education costs need to be kept down. Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS / SA

By Jennifer R. Lloyd | San Antonio Express-News
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Gov. Rick Perry, in town Tuesday to talk about accountability in higher education, found himself addressing questions about his influence and direction of higher education policy.

In prepared remarks before other education leaders at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, the governor touted the second edition of the Texas Public Higher Education Almanac, a compilation of statistics — tuition and fees, enrollment, graduation rates and other details — that was released Tuesday.

Perry said the almanac will send a message to employers that Texas has a skilled workforce and will give young people the data they need to choose the right school and maximize their potential. The almanac is available online at www.thecb.state.tx.us/almanac.

But Perry had to veer off the topic when asked about recent controversies involving the University of Texas System Board of Regents and a comment made Monday by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who opined that higher education in Texas is under political attack.

A recent blog post from Paul Burka, senior executive editor at Texas Monthly, stated that University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers could lose his job after opposing the regents' decision to impose a two-year freeze on undergraduate tuition for state residents there.

On Tuesday, Perry said he agreed with the regents' decision.

“I don't think it's any big secret that I'm for keeping the cost of education down, so my suspicion is that no one in Texas thinks that I'm for tuition growth,” Perry said. “It's a good message to send to the citizens of the state that we're not going to just have tuition ... increasing with no regard for what's happening economically for the citizens of the state.”

In the blog, Burka wrote that an unnamed source said UT Regents Chairman Gene Powell asked UT Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa to recommend firing Powers, but that Cigarroa refused. The chancellor later responded with a statement saying Powell “has never directed me to fire anyone.”

Asked if he was satisfied with Powers' job performance at UT Austin, Perry responded, “That's for the Board of Regents to decide.” “I've got a state to oversee,” Perry continued. “I don't spend all my time focused on one institution of higher learning.”

Support for Powers has flowed in recent days from UT students and faculty. Michael Morton, a student and president of UT Austin's Senate of College Councils, said he believes the threat to Powers' job is real and continues.

“This is not the first time we've heard this rumor,” said Morton, who sent a letter supporting the president to regents Monday. “I don't think it's any coincidence that this happens at the end of the school year when students are either leaving the university or are consumed with finals.”

During Perry's visit to San Antonio, he also disagreed with Wolff's statement that there has been a coordinated attack on higher education in recent years.

Wolff's comment came during a San Antonio Express-News editorial board meeting in which he supported the University of Texas at San Antonio's campaign to become a major research university despite cuts in state funding.

Perry countered by saying, “There's been a coordinated focus on higher education” in a positive way. He said he couldn't recall a legislative session that left everyone satisfied with their funding and added, “I'm pretty sure that won't happen in 2013.”

Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Perry-defends-school-policies-3560897.php#ixzz1v5tzsY95

Texplainer: Could Universities Undergo Sunset Review?

Great response from Texas Tech: “We have a sunset review; it’s just not called sunset review. Every two years we come down here and try to justify what we’re doing.”

-Patricia

Hey, Texplainer: Could the state’s public universities go through the so-called sunset review process, forcing them to periodically defend their existence to state legislators?

The issue came up at a November hearing of the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency, a group formed earlier this year amid tense debate over the operations of higher education institutions in the state.

A co-chair of the committee, state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, cited a recommendation from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank whose higher education proposals she has openly opposed, that was delivered to legislators prior to the recent legislative session. It called for lawmakers to “study the feasibility, the pros, and the cons of placing universities under sunset review.”

Most state agencies go through the high-stakes process every 12 years. Their operations are scrutinized and the Legislature decides whether they should continue to operate. If legislators don't act to keep an agency in sunset alive, it shuts down.

“If the Legislature were to adopt such a recommendation, how would your universities in your system be impacted?” Zaffirini asked a group of university system chancellors who had been invited to testify on matters of governance.

As might be expected, the chancellors didn’t go for the idea.

University of Houston System Chancellor Renu Khator said it was “not doable.” Texas Tech University System Chancellor Kent Hance, a former legislator, said, “We have a sunset review; it’s just not called sunset review. Every two years we come down here and try to justify what we’re doing.”

That the discussion was even occurring surprised some in the higher education community. Michael McClendon, an education policy expert from Vanderbilt University, has been retained by the Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, an organization that sprang up in opposition to the TPPF’s proposals. He said it struck him as “illogical,” at a time when universities must increasingly look to private dollars to fund their activities, that they might have to do so with the caveat that they might not exist in a few years. “What right-minded donor would give to that organization?”

Lee Jackson, the chancellor of the University of North Texas System, expressed reluctance to proclaim that universities should be exempt from the sunset process — after all, as a state representative in 1979 he had disagreed with the State Bar of Texas that it should be exempted.

Higher education might be different. Usually, Jackson said, when an agency is sunsetted — a nice way of saying shut down — its functions are transferred to another agency. But because of accreditation requirements, among other issues, the students at a university that was eliminated through the sunset review process could not simply or easily be transferred and would most likely be left in the lurch.

“If the question were asked … could the state of Texas use our time better evaluating our progress, I would say yes,” Jackson said.

That’s what the recommendation was driving at, according to Thomas Lindsay, who arrived as director of the TPPF’s Center for Higher Education after the proposal was made. “The idea behind it is pretty common sense,” he said. “As an entity created for and paid for by the taxpayers, it, like all other state entities, should be reviewed.”

The intent was not to shut down the universities, he said, adding that it was “unfortunate” if that was the impression that had been given. And if a sunset process were in place, he does not believe it would shutter universities. “The purpose of education is not something that’s going to go out of style, so it’s not looked at as a way to abolish them,” he said. “If any entity can [defend its existence], institutions of higher education would be those.”

Lindsay said the TPPF is currently examining different ways to review universities as they piece together what will ultimately be their recommendations for the 2013 legislative session.

Those proposals, when they come, will likely be pored over carefully by the higher education community both in Texas and elsewhere. “I think some people look to Texas with befuddlement,” McClendon said. “They understand that the questions being asked there are being asked everywhere, but some of the solutions being raised seem a bit extreme.”

Bottom line: Technically, it's feasible, but university leaders and some higher education experts say it's not realistic.