Officials: College aid cuts would set back Hispanics - MELISSA LUDWIG, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

As low-income students flock to Texas colleges and universities in record numbers, an estimated $18 billion budget shortfall threatens to sap the state's chief grant program for needy students. Gov. Rick Perry has ordered all state agencies to plan for a 10 percent cut in the 2012-13 biennium, including the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which administers the $614 million TEXAS Grant program. The cuts could shut out about 24,000 first-time grant recipients in the next two years, just as many low-income Hispanic students are becoming the first in their family to enter college.