Summary

The University of Texas System has approved a tuition-free program for undergraduate students from families earning $100,000 or less, starting next fall.

The initiative, funded by an immediate $35 million in endowments and long-term investments, seeks to lower student debt and improve access to higher education.

Qualifying students must be Texas residents, enroll full-time, and apply for financial aid.

While the program builds on previous UT tuition relief efforts funded by endowments and oil royalties, critics, including Texas lawmakers, have called it unconstitutional and proposed cutting UT’s budget.

  • venusaur@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Love this. Forgiving student loans is a band-aid. Making higher education free or more affordable is the real solution.

  • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I make too much to take advantage of this so obviously I hate it.

    Just kidding, I’m fucking excited for the folks who will get to take advantage of this program. Fuck the lawmakers trying to axe this.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I guess at least you won’t be paying to get screwed, that’s a pretty significant upgrade from most universities.

  • solrize@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    This is nice to hear but there are lots of expenses besides tuition. Like housing, books, food, “fees”, etc. If the program costs just $35mm in a huge university like that, you know it’s not covering much. Source: this was sort of the situation at my old school. Tuition was fairly low back then, but everything else still added up.

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    On paper this sounds good but this sounds like another way to keep rich families rich. The only way to get into UT these days is have connections, or be really good at something like football or very high gpa. The high gpa and football people were already getting scholarships so guess who will get this new money? People that already had the money to pay for the school.