Turner: End Tuition De-Reg

Do'h! Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, has called the press together at 9.30am tomorrow in the Speaker's Committee Room to "announce the intention by several members of the Texas Legislature to reverse tuition deregulation in Texas." However, he seems not to have noticed that the entire press corps will be at the Austin Convention Center covering (or lining up to get their credentials for) the Texas Democratic Party.

Bad planning, because soaring higher ed fees are a topic that Texas Dems are gaining some traction on these days. De-regulation did pretty much nothing except cause fees to sky-rocket to the point that working and lower-middle-class families have to sell organs to get a child through a four-year degree.

UT System chancellor Mark Yudof has consistently opposed regulation, and probably will continue to fight it. But that's working on the principle that, of the big two systems, UT has any friends in the lege. A&M, through its pivotal role in rural communities through the A&M extension, is part of agricultural life in many districts. But when UT Austin went hat-in-hand to the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committee last session, the disdain in the air for president Bill Powers' pleadings of poverty was thick in the air.