Disgruntled Student Government members presented Texas House of Representatives Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, with a certificate of recognition as an "Enemy of Education" on Wednesday at the Capitol.
At a news conference organized by SG Student Services Director Andrew Dobbs, members addressed a small crowd with concerns about tuition deregulation, a factor they claim Craddick was influential in passing.
"This award recognizes the speaker's real achievement in education," Dobbs said, unveiling a poster-sized version of the certificate. "The actions of the speaker to push for tuition deregulation result in college educations being more out of reach for students than ever before."
The certificate, presented to Craddick's office after the press conference, alleges that deregulation of college tuition has made higher education in the state of Texas less affordable and less accessible to students. It also alleges that deregulation balances the college budgets on students' and parents' backs and shuts the door on thousands of Texans who dream of a college education.
"Abdicating responsibility for setting tuition rates at state universities to unelected regents who have no accountability to the taxpayers of Texas is ridiculous," Dobbs said. "This is wrong."
Matt Stolhandske, SG International Student Affairs director and a member of the Young Conservatives of Texas, said tuition deregulation was "a wolf in sheep's clothing."
"Deregulation is not deregulation at all but simply a dressed-up way of increasing tuition and raising taxes on middle-class families," Stolhandske said.
Stolhandske said the decision to present the "tongue-in-cheek" award came after the Friends of the University System planned to present Craddick with the Darrell K Royal Friend of the University award.
UT System Regent Robert Estrada defended Craddick, saying he is "a great public servant."
"Speaker Craddick is a friend of education, and students have a right to express otherwise, but in this instance, I think it is a great injustice to label him as an 'enemy of education'," Estrada said.
Craddick defended tuition deregulation in a written statement, saying it was "the absolutely right thing to do."
"It has already allowed our state universities to save classes and laboratories that would otherwise have closed for lack of funding," Craddick said. "Tuition deregulation will allow state schools of higher learning to remain competitive and achieve greatness."
He said deregulation was endorsed by every president of every state university in Texas and the majority of university student body presidents.
Dobbs, however, claimed that a majority of student body presidents in Texas have opposed tuition deregulation.
Zach Neumann, a two-year, at-large SG representative, also attacked Craddick's work on tuition deregulation.
"Students will fall deeper and deeper into debt faster," Neumann said. "All this does is crush the dreams of students who feel they will no longer be able to afford a college education."
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