TSC TUITION RATE SCANDAL BEYOND POLITICS

"The Coordinating Board said that statewide average for 2009-2010 for tuition and fees in community colleges was $1,870. In contrast, Texas Southmost College costs are $5,498."

By Juan Montoya

Credit TSC board candidate Kiko Rendon (and Rene Coronado) for bringing home the fact that students in the most economically-depressed area of the state - and maybe the country - are saddled with the highest public community tuition and fee rates in all of Texas.
This is not just some election-season claim by someone trying to hustle your vote.
None other than the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has confirmed that the TSC costs for 2009-2010 are obscenely higher in comparison with 53 other public community colleges in Texas.
In fact, the costs for local students are not only above the state average, but are leapfrogging beyond comprehension.
The cost information used by the Coordinating Board is based on average costs for tuition and fees for dependent students living off campus who enroll in 15 credit hours in both fall and spring. TSC's rates are higher than all 53 community colleges surveyed in the state of Texas.
Yet, in the face of this incontrovertible fact, Rendon's opponent, 12-year incumbent Rosemary Breedlove, has not made one comment on what she has done to ease the burden on local students and their families.
Instead, she is counting on the silk-stocking precincts in Los Fresnos, Padre Island, Laguna Heights, and Port Isabel to keep her at the helm on the college board.
In the link below, note that the cost for in-district and out-of-district students at UTB-TSC is one and the same. In other words, local students at TSC (even those in remedial and vocational areas) have to pay the same tuition rates as do students in academic tracks for upper-level degrees at UTB.
And while her supporters may claim that she was merely going along with the rest of the board in discontinuing the in-district tuition rates for local students, the sleight-of-hand involved in doing away with the rates and institution across-the-board increases belies that claim.
Minutes from the September 26, 2007 meeting indicate that on a motion by David Oliveira and a second by Breedlove, the board followed the recommendations of David E. Pearson(Agenda Item #6), vice-president for UTB-TSC Partnership Affairs to "convert the current tuition subsidy (in-district) into a TSC Trustees Scholarship" explicitly designed to "facilitate students' movement toward a Associate Baccalaureate of Arts degree."
In the following item (#7), Breedlove seconded the resolution on a motion by Dolly Zimmerman to allow the college to "consider possible alternative uses for approximately $3.2 million" of its operating budget..to best enhance academic success for in-district students..."
In one fell swoop and under the guise of creating a scholarship to be administered by the trustees, the board members raised tuition costs by 39 percent for in-district students.
And the "scholarships" that average only $258 are to be administered according to the rules set by the college. In other words, while everyone who lived in the TSC district received lower tuition rates, under the new scheme they would all pay the higher rates without any guarantee that they would receive a "trustee scholarship.'
Judge for yourself.
The Coordinating Board said that statewide average for 2009-2010 for tuition and fees in community colleges was $1,870. In contrast, TSC costs are $5,498.
As far as books and supplies, room and board, transportation and personal expenses, the statewide average per year comes to $13,184.
Guess what TSC student have to pay. How about $19,462?
Again, this is not something that Rendon or Coronado made up on the way to the election. This is something that was a deliberate policy and which Breedlove supported with her seconding of the motions by Oliveira and Zimmerman, well aware of the effect that would have on the local students' economy.
Such incompassionate policies geared to deny access to a large number of local students whose families are struggling to make ends meet while dealing with double-digit unemployment and a depressed economy are indefensible.
Rendon is right, as was Coronado. This administration and its rubber-stamp board has to change if we are to provide an opportunity for our students to afford an education which will allow them to better their and their families' educational and economic levels.
The choice seems to us very clear. The last thing we need is for Breedlove to continue as a board member. Vote for Kiko Rendon in the runoff TSC board election.
For a full comparison with 53 other community colleges, click the link below. It'll be an eye opener.

http://www.collegefortexans.com/apps/collegecosts.cfm?Type=1&Level=2