Jul 24, 2008

Mr. President, I agree

The president of UT recently made a plea to the legislature to put more funds into OTHER Texas state colleges. The idea is that other schools need to be brought up to tier one like UT and A&M. This my friends is very smart.

In California, the UC school system is pretty well respected all around (so I hear). UC-Berkley might be considered the cream of the crop but who was ever bummed about going to UCLA? Nobody. That's what we need in Texas. We need more schools that top students are excited to go to.

This would be especially great given the top 10% rule. If two other schools were as fantastic as as UT or A&M then top 10%-ers would be more evenly distributed instead of overcrowding our state's top two universities. Additionally, students not in the top 10% would be more likely to be accepted into a university that fits their academic level.

And, oh yes, there's more. It would bring money to Texas. Research dollars go to great top tier universities. We'd have more pull on research dollars if we had more schools with a top tier reputation. Not to mention general improvement of our education system's reputation nationally.

But which schools? I think Texas Tech should definitely be one of them. Currently our two top tier schools are Central to East Texas and neither very far north. Texas Tech as a top tier school would give outstanding students in Northwest Texas a closer-to-home option. Where for the other? UT-El Paso was mentioned in the article. I thought of A&M Corpus Christi. While either of those would add great geographic diversity, it clearly favors one system or the other. Perhaps a non UT or non A&M school would be best politically. Angelo State in San Angelo maybe? To be fair, I don't know what school besides Tech might be on the brink of top tier. It would definitely make the most sense to choose the school with the least investment necessary.

That's it. I'm done on that topic now. Time for dinner.

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