Rep. Brian Harrison is among a group of lawmakers criticizing the UT System for expanding its free tuition program.
DALLAS — State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Waxahachie) calls it “left-wing propaganda” and plans to zero out funding for Texas public universities if they offer “LGBTQ/sexuality studies” programs. said.
“If they have LGBTQ minors, that’s an abuse of taxpayer funds that was never authorized by Congress, and as far as I’m concerned, there should be consequences,” the Republican told Inside Texas Politics. Ta.
Congressman Harrison is one of 11 state legislators who sent a letter to University of Texas System leaders criticizing the University of Texas Board of Regents for offering free tuition to undergraduate students whose families earn less than $100,000 a year. One of them. This move by the UT System is an expansion of its Promise Plus endowment, which allows eligible undergraduate students to attend any of its nine institutions tuition-free.
Under the previous standards in 2019, UT Austin would have received $167 million in endowments to cover tuition and compulsory education costs for undergraduates from families with adjusted gross incomes of $65,000 or less. Founded. In 2022, UT System Regents provided a second round of nearly $300 million to expand the program to all UT academic institutions across the state.
But Congressman Harrison said Congress, and Congress alone, can authorize and appropriate the use of funds in this way, in his words, “this is a major decision.” It is claimed that there is.
And Republicans said there must be consequences, including budget cuts and employee layoffs.
“If Texas is going to become even more socialist than California, this is an absolutely outrageous abuse of power, and that’s what we’re doing here,” he said.
One of the questions Harrison and other councilors sent to the board was whether “LGBTQ/sexuality studies” would be included in the free tuition plan.
He plans to introduce legislation that would zero out funding for university presidents that offer such programs.
“Public higher education in Texas is off track. Prisoners are running asylums,” Harrison said. “If you care as much as I do about protecting the separation of powers, let me tell you what this is: Congress never voted, so this is an abuse of power.”
The Republican also said he hopes there will be enough votes to pass school choice in the 89th Congress, which begins in January, but there is no guarantee.
“Anyone who says this is a done deal is either ignorant or lying,” he said frankly.
Harrison acknowledged that Republicans have more votes than ever before. But he also argues that the devil is in the details and that school choice legislation needs to be much better than the last Congress, when nothing was passed.
“They weren’t universal. They were economically irresponsible and reckless. We need to introduce a bill that’s done right,” the Republican argued. “More than 34 other states already give parents some school choice. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. We need to learn from the successes of other states.”
