MaxPower said:
Yeah seems they need to decide what's more important: serving the youth of their state or making money. Either way, I'd be increasing out of state tuition if I were them.
It's not just money it's academics. Those Texas kids that couldn't get into A&M and Texas often still have great GPA's and SAT scores, especially the ones who get the In State tuition scholarships. Arkansas simply doesn't have a HS system that can remotely compete with Texas at the top end. Bentonville HS is the only large HS in Arkansas that would be among the Top 20 in Texas among the big schools and it would probably be around 10th. They also have very few great private/charter schools. They simply don't produce enough quality students and a lot of that is because outside of NWA there just isn't any real draw for tech workers and high income salaried parents that are involved and tend to have kids that achieve academically at a much higher rate.
Same story in Mississippi (Ole Miss is over 60% OOS), Alabama (U of A also over 60%), Louisiana, and Oklahoma amongst others. Texas has a truly impressive top end of our HS system with so many HUGE HS's that produce so many kids prepared to excel in college due to the hubs of our major cities. Where Texas is failing is we aren't providing enough quality opportunities for those kids because we are wanting to provide more opportunities for kids who aren't as prepared from lower rated HS's.
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan