Has Governor Perry Lost His Mind ?

In his recent "state of the state" speech, Governor Perry glibly discussed the financial problems facing the state of Texas as though they can be easily fixed, and fixed without dipping into the "rainy day" fund or raising taxes. He seems to think it won't be difficult to chop $27 billion out of the state's budget without drastically affecting state services and education.

That was bad enough, but then he said the state's college's and universities should be able to create a four year degree that would cost no more than $10,000. And amazingly, he said it with a straight face! I am left to wonder what state he is living in, because it sure isn't Texas. Does he think the colleges can perform magic, or that they don't have expenses that they must pay to stay in business and continue educating students?

The governor, and his Republican cohorts in the legislature, have already cut funds for higher education and forced state colleges to raise tuition rates. Now they are proposing even more cuts to higher education. The governor doesn't seem to realize that his cutting higher education funds doesn't lower the costs that the colleges must pay. Let's look at the numbers and see if his $10,000 education is at all feasible.

The current cost of tuition and fees at an average state college in Texas is $3,323 for each semester. Assuming a student can get his/her degree in four years (eight semesters), that comes to $26,584 (more than double the $10,000 figure of Perry). And that doesn't even consider the cost of books, which would probably add a couple of thousand dollars to the cost of tuition and fees. And if you needed to pay the room and board at the college, the cost rises astronomically.

Of course those figures are the current situation. The proposed cuts to higher education would add another $1,023 to the tuition costs each year (or $4,092 for a four-year degree), raising the overall cost of a four-year degree to $30,676. Even if only half of the proposed higher education cuts actually happen, it would raise the cost of a four-year degree to $28,632 (about $512 extra for each year).

So the governor is expecting to drastically cut the amount of money the state provides for state-supported universities, and yet he expects those same universities to cut the cost of a degree by 62.4% (or $16,584). How could they possibly accomplish that?

This is just another example of Republican math -- which follows no logical rules and just allows them to throw out whatever number sounds good to them. Either that, or the governor has lost his damn mind (if he ever had one).