Students protest higher tuition

AUSTIN (AP) - Some students from the University of Texas at Austin Thursday rallied at the state Capitol against higher tuition.

Lawmakers are considering legislation to freeze rates for at least two years. The central complaint is that legislators are talking a lot about delivering relief to middle-class parents. But lawmakers are saying little about how they will keep paying for faculty salaries and fund research if tuition dollars start drying up.

The students cheered: "What do we want?"

The reply was: "Tuition relief!"

Senate Bill 105 would put a moratorium on tuition increases for two years, peg future hikes to the cost of living and require that most fee hikes be approved by a majority of students. The unintended consequences of not funding higher education, according to Sen. Judith Zaffirini of Laredo, adequately and of not providing different sources of revenue will be "mediocrity and inadequacy." Zaffirini feels that is not acceptable.

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