BREEDLOVE'S SMOKE AND MIRRORS HIDE THE BIG LIE

By Juan Montoya

The new silver-tounged ad agency-generated ad that appeared in the Brownsville Herald for Rosemary Breedlove is pregnant with her iron-fist-in-the-velvet-glove trademark copy.

In the headline (forceful, yet with an elegant font) she asks the reader if they want "Experience, Honesty and Integrity?"

The she goes on to criticize Kiko Rendon (who we are to assume is not experienced, honest and lacks integrity) for promising to cut taxes and lower tuition, arguing that Rendon is a simpleton who doesn't understand that in order to have the "one of the finest Community Universities(?) in America" we simply must have the high taxes and tuition rates and fees or else risk losing the grandeur of UTB-TSC, the Harvard by the Rio Grande.

The ad argues that we simply cannot afford to cut taxes and lower tuition and fees if we are to pay the bills, meet payroll, and keep the place looking grand. And let's not forget the bond payments we have to make after you, the taxpayer, voted to burden yourself with $68 million to build the facilities that the UTB uses since the partnership agreement stipulates that the UT System will not build a campus here.

The ad goes on to list a number of "facts" that seek to refute Kiko's planks on his platform. He says TSC's Continuing Education tuition and fees are nearly identical" to other colleges and universities in the Valley and around the state.

Now, unless this is some thinly-sliced and contorted and esoteric category that can only be understood by like-minded distortionists of data, someone should call the Higher Education Coordinating Board and tell them to change their listings of costs of community colleges that clearly show that TSC's tuition and fee rate schedules are higher than any other community college in Texas.

The board begs to differ and states in its 2009-2010 report that the average community college students in Texas pays $1,870 per year in tuition and fees while our fortunate local residents pay $5,498.

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

And then the ad goes on to say that 73 percent of UTB-TSDC students pay less than $200 per semester out of pocket" because of the m,any scholarships, grants, and waivers provided by the college district, the State of Texas and the federal government.

Well, now, if we add only the fees that all students must pay and exclude tuition, it is readily apparent that each students pays much more than the measly $200 that Breedlove claims they pay in this expensive ad.

For example, try these on for size:

Student Services Fee: $12 per semester hour ($50 maximum)

Student Union Fee: $45 per long semester (Note: Remember that the administration used politiqueras to ram though the vote on this fee? They voted for it and are happy to pay for it, Juliet will smugly tell you.)

Computer Use Fee: $2 per semester credit hour

Records Fee: $10 per semester

Automated Services Fee: $45 per semester

Academic Advising Fee-Undergraduate: $50 per semester

Academic Advising Fee-Graduate: $25 per semester

Building Use Fee: $2.50 per semester hour (TSC only) (Note: Now, remember that the original college buildings were already there and paid by the parents of local students. The new UTB buildings have all been paid by local taxpayers because the UTB wrested the concession as a result of the "partnership agreement" that local taxpayers would build the facilities and they would rent them. UTB, by the way, is about $10.5 million in arrears on their rent. In other words, they're deadbeats. But why should local students have to pay a building use fee?)

Library Fee: $5 per semester credit hour (You know, the library that now hold only two-thirds of the books the old library held and the other third was thrown out because they were inconveniently too many for the new digs.)

International Education Fee: $2 per semester hour

Medical Services Fee: $20 per semester

Student Recreation Fee: $79 per semester

Athletic Fee: $7 per semester hour (It doesn't really matter if you don't get sick, play sports or take part in any recreational activities. You still have to pay.)

Just based on these fees, minus the athletic fee, a student attending TSC carrying 12 hours will have to pay $300 out of pocket in fees alone, excluding tuition. And Breedlove wants "Honesty and Integrity" putting out this kind of drivel?

We should be thankful, she says, that after 75 years of subsidizing TSC, and now the oil-and-gas-royalty rich UT System. We have built one of the finest community universities in America.

Yeah! In fact, it's so fine that the Education Trust in assessing oranges-to-oranges comparisons between UTB-TSC and other similar institutions in the country found that our "Finest Community Univerties in America" graduated a whopping 16 percent of students over a six-year period.

Hey, UNAM, Harvard, the the University of Michigan, Yale, and other "fine" universities in 'Merica are probably growing nervous hearing our footsteps.

Yes, Ms. Breedlove, this is indeed a "bargain," isn't it?

So, if we want to continue subsidizing a "first-rate university" that charges its students more than any other in the State of Texas, graduates less than one-fifth of its students, and runs roughshod over local taxpayers, the choice is clear: Vote Breedlove.

If, on the other hand, you can look though the distortions and smoke an mirrors of the Rosemary Breedlove ads, let's vote for Kiko Rendon and stop this nonsense.