At a time when college tuition costs -- along with student loan debt -- are soaring across the country, the University of Texas at Austin announced Tuesday that it will provide free tuition for all in-state students whose families earn less than $65,000 a year.
The funding comes from a new $160 million endowment that the the University of Texas System's Board of Regents voted to establish from the state's Permanent University Fund , and should start benefiting students as soon as the fall 2020 semester, the college announced in a statement. The median household income in Texas was $57,051 between 2013 and 2017, according to recentU.S. Census data. At the moment, the new tuition assistance would only apply to students at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Recognizing both the need for improved access to higher education and the high value of a UT Austin degree, we are dedicating a distribution from the Permanent University Fund to establish an endowment that will directly benefit students and make their degrees more affordable,” Kevin Eltife, chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, and a UT Austin alum, said in a statement.
But good luck getting in!
Fantastic news! Charles Miller would be so proud of UT for taking this incredible step!
That's good. A better educated population is a healthy one.
That's nice... and who is paying for this?
Awesome. People helping people.
Can they pay mine too?
FREE is the biggest lie that liberals tell. They need to replace the word free with 'taxpayer funded'.
Beautiful
this means the other students will be paying for this
Who knew that 'Liberalism' 'Socialism' would be a thing in the heart of Texas.
In a red state like Texas seanhannity TuckerCarlson and every opinion show host and guest in FoxNews are going to be all o we this socialist giveaway. BernieSanders must be thrilled
Only at the Austin campus if you can get accepted
Hook Em Horns. Keeping Alumni Proud. Class of 2004!
and it will be a boon of educated citizens for it's state
Dang. Finding out right before I’m about to graduate.
I want everyone who wants to go to school to be able but what happened to working hard, earning a scholarship and investing in yourself by working for it.
Free? It’s taxpayer money.
I wonder how that will be factored in with their acceptance rate. I am a resident of Texas and it is difficult to get into as a state school.
Are you asking me to move?
Free education is a Communist ideology. Wake up Texans. This is the beginning of communism in Texas. MAGA capitalism America Texas
Wonderful. “Hook ‘em Horns”
And there goes lots of people working to claim less and less on their taxes.
“When we identify where our privilege intersects with somebody else's oppression, we'll find our opportunities to make real change.” ― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race
A child from a poor disadvantaged family could turn out to be the person to cure cancer, invent a new environmentally friendly power/energy source to save the planet or another great career, to be a teacher! Education of our children is our future pension.
NOTHING is free. Who's going to end up paying? Taxpayers.
You're motherfucking kidding. Welp I'm sure I'm illegible for reasons other than income but have fun class of 2020
God bless Texas.
So now they'll just admit less students in that bracket
it's not quite what it seems as it only covers the Austin campus which accepts a large percentage of out-of-state students, takes the top 6% of HS grads, a number of legacy students & has few open spots, guessing the program will be for students in the 6% from less affluent areas
Holy shit Texas finally acting progressive👏👏👏
Wd've made higher education a commodity rather than a common good & turned our young into indentured servants. We should incentivize private business to take on this 1.5 trillion in student loan debt as they benefit from the pool of educated workers.
Hook ‘em 🤘🏽
How about if you earn$66,000?
Texas is going to have one hell of an athletic program if they have carte blanche on scholarships!
Awesome!!!!!
Bless them ♥
Nothing free about it, fake news.
Congrats Texas U. I knew it wasn't the GOP legislature in Texas making it happen. Proud of you Texas U. My dad was a principal and I a BIble College President. I know this isn't simple, but kudos to you.
AngelaKinsey
AngelaKinsey So you still have to submit family financial data. Hard to do when you don't have access to family. Great step forward though for most people.
AngelaKinsey No one gets in UT. Lol
Technically it is not free it’s called cost shifting. Somebody is paying for it or are the professors working for free?
Would this be happening if Democratic candidates such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were NOT proposing 'free public college for all'?
Of course. Now that I've moved out of that tornado ridden state, they pull this.
hannahlynnew143
But it’s UT, so....
Great!!
Nothing is “free” The faculty and staff aren’t free, the books aren’t free, the athletic program is not free, etc etc etc . This will be paid for by the students and families who make more than the 65k threshold.
BUT MY KID PAID FULL TUITION!!! It wasn’t free for me so it shouldn’t be for anyone else!! Trolololol
There’s gonna be a lot of families asking for salary decreases
I wish they did this when I went there. 🤘🏻❤️🤘🏻
Wow
Nice ! wish my state provided this aid.
sounds like a first step to free education
Go Longhorns.
And you gotta walk around with an orange band on your sleeve?
That's incredible! FreeCollege
IF you can get accepted! Only the top 6% will get an automatic admit to UT.
And raise taxes to pay for it. Or did teachers agree to work for minimum wage or just donate their services?
UT is so fking rich
Am I alone thinking this is ridiculous? So if you make $64,999 you have to hope you don’t get a raise while your kid’s in school or it’ll cost you a fortune? I guess employers might like that. How is this better than financial aid packages? I just don’t see how this works.
ArchieBunker19 wording tells me includes illegals
powerful republicans who support socialist values aren’t called socialists; they’re revered as “morally strong” by evangelical peers.
Who’s paying for it? nothing is free in this capitalist country except breathing
abcnews Run the numbers of a family of 4 earning $75K/year, (could be $150K/year in a major metro or area with higher cost of living) & take off ALL the taxes (incl. auto, real estate, etc), insurance costs, et al & see what they have left to pay for food, housing, etc. NOT MUCH
rose_m1 At the rate we are going, we are going to run out of free stuff
Bravo! Now, we're getting somewhere.
That’s pretty cool
UT and Austin are mostly liberal. Why are people in the comments shocked? haha
So democratic socialism is okay when republicans do it? This should be nation wide along with free access to healthcare.
Weird that socialism is coming from Texas, but good job
The cost of tuition will go up exponentially for those that make over 65K. State taxes will increase too. This will be a failure.
Socialism in TX...
Can you make that retroactive to 1983?
Free housing food and books right? 4 year kinesiology majors paid in full I hope ?
“Free”
if you think about it, this is no different than our recent past, where a majority could still get a well-paying job and raise a family with a HS diploma and not be saddled with debt to start. a uni degree has become mandatory to work in most sectors.
let’s be straight here, politics (and the morons invested in it) aside, this is a really, really good thing. to demand a uni degree in most sectors of our economy and start adults off with huge debt is purely to consolidate and protect familial wealth, power and influence.
$160 million endowment. That covers how many students and for how many years?
You just need a 10,000 on your SAT.
Are conservatives eligible since they despise socialism ?
so, it’s socialism unless a republican gets onboard?
Nothing is “free”
So so socialism by Republicans?
UT Austin if you can get accepted
This will be a GREAT opportunity for many students, wish others would follow UTAustin
Anyone whose family yells against Socialism shouldn’t be eligible for it; they don’t want socialism? let em pay lol
Well done Texas!!!
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