Fort Worth Star-Telegram
by Gene Trainor
North Texas’ three largest universities are on the losing end of a chunk of state funding, causing them to miss out on millions of dollars a year, according to an analysis by a San Antonio legislator.
The 12,500-student Texas Woman’s University in Denton is the region’s only public four-year institution that receives about what would be expected from nonformula funding, according to research by Democratic state Rep. Michael Villarreal.
But the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of North Texas in Denton receive much less than what would be expected.
Political power plays a key role, Villarreal said.
Public colleges and universities in Texas get most of their state money through formula funding.
Formula funding is based on formulas that include the number of credit hours (courses) students take, the type of courses taken (an engineering course gets more money than a liberal arts course because it costs more to teach) and the amount of space an institution should need to operate.
Colleges also receive nonformula funding — money from state research grants or dollars a legislator might get for a school in his district. Comparing schools using the number and types of courses taken by students, UT-Dallas received $8.6 million less during fiscal 2008 than what would be expected. UT-Arlington was out $8.7 million, UNT $9 million.
UNT lost the most among four-year institutions. But the University of Houston at Victoria ranked at the bottom when the number and types of courses students take, also called weighted semester credit hours, are taken into account.
Villarreal said he did not include Texas A&M University in College Station or the University of Texas at Austin in his analysis because their massive funding would have skewed the results.
The top two winners were the University of Texas at Permian Basin in Odessa and Texas A&M International University in Laredo. They received the most money above what would be expected based on the number and types of courses.
They have both had powerful political leaders. Rep. Tom Craddick’s district includes a sliver of Odessa. He was House speaker until this year. Sen. Judith Zaffirini’s district includes Laredo. She leads the Senate Higher Education Committee.
Neither Craddick nor Zaffirini could be reached for comment, and they did not respond to e-mailed questions.
Race for Tier 1
Nonformula funding represents 10 to 20 percent of the total state dollars that go to four-year state colleges and universities. But that’s enough to help influence the race for Tier 1 status among Texas’ seven state-designated "emerging" universities.
UNT, UT-Arlington and UT-Dallas are all trying to become major research schools on the level of Texas A&M and UT-Austin.
So are the University of Houston and Texas Tech University in Lubbock. They both come out top dollar winners, with Houston getting $28 million above what would be expected, followed by Texas Tech, with $23 million. The other universities competing in the Tier 1 sweepstakes are UT-El Paso and UT-San Antonio.
Susan Rogers, UT-Dallas vice president of communications, said a more methodical way of distributing money is needed. But the ultimate problem is a general lack of state dollars.
"A bunch of schools are kicking the crumbs around the floor," she said.
UT-Arlington officials are cautious. They’re seeking $5 million in nonformula dollars to pay for a program to expand the nursing program, which now has about 400 students.
"We get relatively little nonformula funding — we’d like to get more," Kristin Sullivan, assistant vice president for media relations, wrote in an e-mail. "But we are encouraged by early indications that the Legislature will grant us $5 million over the next biennium to establish the UT Arlington Regional Nursing Education Center."
UNT officials are also reluctant to complain. State legislators are now deciding how much money colleges will get over the next two years.
UNT has developed several programs, such as music, fine arts and city management, "with the benefit of only limited nonformula funding," spokesman Buddy Price wrote in an e-mail. So UNT’s top legislative priority is ensuring that the Texas Higher Education Board gets the amount of formula funding it says it needs. State legislators have typically approved less.
'Rules of the game’
Villarreal said he did the analysis because more money should be funneled to colleges by formula funding. He said that’s a fairer way to distribute dollars. Nonformula funding, he says, is influenced heavily by legislators who hold powerful positions, such as those who lead a higher education committee or serve on appropriation committees.
"Those are the rules of the game," Villarreal said. "Those were the rules of the game."
Such research comes easily to Villarreal. He earned an economics degree at Texas A&M and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He said he has no plans to file legislation from his research but hopes policy leaders and lawmakers talk about the disparities in nonformula funding. UT-San Antonio was also in the loss column.
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said her office will review Villarreal’s analysis. Spokesman Bernie Scheffler said Davis is concerned about funding for all state universities.
"She has expressed the desire this session to see higher education get more funding, period," he aid.
Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington, declined to comment.
Staff writer Alex Branch contributed to this report.