Texas student financial aid could take $108M hit - Ralph K.M. Haurwitz, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

The state Legislature could reduce spending on financial aid for college students by as much as $108 million in the next two-year budget, based on an appropriations request approved Thursday by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The operative word is "could." Legislative leaders and Gov. Rick Perry last month ordered agencies and public institutions of higher learning to submit budgets showing how they would cut 10 percent of their funding for the biennium that begins in September 2011 . Lawmakers will decide whether and how much to cut when they meet in Austin beginning in January.