Texas Budget Fix: Cuts to Colleges and Universities

So, if publicly funded colleges and universities in Texas are going to take a huge hit when Republican legislators rectify the $25 billion state budget deficit by enacting massive cuts, rather than raising taxes, what is that going to look like exactly? Inquiring minds (aka, parents of college aged children) want to know.

The Chron takes a stab at it today:

• Cut financial aid (I'm thinking some of those programs that allow low income kids to go to college tuition free in Texas? Currently, the state requires universities to set aside 20% of tuition increases for financial aid (Senate Bill 1304) - will that requirement go away?)
• increase class size
• cut course sections (anyone remember the last big budget cut to state supported universities in the 80's? I was in grad school at UH and had a difficult time completely my degree program because courses I needed were offered so infrequently. The solution was to not take them, and to get credit for special research courses that were offered by professors - not as a part of a regular class.)
• layoff or furlough professors
• increase tuition
• community colleges will raise taxes (this is the solution that Republicans love the most - push the tax increases onto another taxing entity, thereby keeping their own promise of "no new taxes" - people (voters) really are too dumb to catch on to this)
• collaboration among institutions (as an example, an Aggie friend of mine told me last week that A&M and UT are sharing lobbyists - they have realized their future is linked. I imagine that is a cost savings, as well)

What are other states and countries doing to cut higher ed?

Scotland (from The Courier): voluntary reductions in force, fewer student admissions, less research (grant cuts)

Overall in the UK: monies for teaching and research were drastically cut, resulting in student protests over increased tuition

California: cut special programs like fine arts and deaf studies (San Diego), raise retirement age of university staff and cut retirement benefits, accept less students, cut course offerings, raise student fees, fewer labs (unable to afford the grad students to run them), find innovate ways to raise money and admit more foreign students (University of California system)

Brandeis: close university run museum and sell valuable art

LSU: triage and cut non-core teaching and research functions first (palatable, perhaps, but now they are having to move on to cutting core functions)

Anyone know of other specific cuts to higher ed the Lege is considering? Or, of specific cuts or tuition/fee increases universities will make in response?

As a parent of college aid kids, my biggest concerns are: will my high school junior be able to get into a Texas college and at what cost? Are we going to eat up all of our college savings on the college sophomore?

There are a hundred blog posts in the making on how this is all going to play out, including the huge expenses colleges lay out to remediate our poorly educated high school graduate population. Stay tuned.