Students React to Proposed Change in State School Funding

A new proposal by one Texas lawmaker would change the way the state allocates funding for higher education.

"I think that graduation rates are a higher priority than just enrollment," said Kaitlyn Andreas, a senior at Texas Tech.

Andreas says she supports the proposal by Representative Dan Branch that would base 25% of a school's state funding on measures of student success like graduation rates.

"Anybody can come to a school and be there for a year and have high enrollment in a school but then once you look at higher graduation rates I think that is kind of more important," said Andreas.

"Graduation is most important rather than just coming here to be here," said Lauren Andreas, Kaitlyn's sister and a freshman at Texas Tech.

They think this measure would force the school to put more funding into support services like tutoring.

"I think that the funding for that would be better suited for students that are really here to try to learn and graduate and get a degree in what they want," said Kaitlyn Andreas.

But not all students see it that way, junior Christopher Rodriguez thinks it would bring down the school's education quality.

"What you are going to end up doing is the schools are going to be strictly on numbers and not the actual quality of the education," said Rodriguez, "It will be like as long as we can get you to graduate that way we can get our funding that is. The quality of the actual education is going to be shot."