# Texas Tuition Bill - thoughts. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 30, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-tuition-bill-thoughts/764490 "2016-08-30T16:12:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-tuition-bill-thoughts/764490/41 "2016-08-31T20:48:43Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Well no because research is often paid by grants and there is a separate maintainance budget. And look at the numbers … $40,000 per year x 20,000 students means their instruction costs are $800,000,000 per year. They must pay their professors a lot of money. That would be true if all that money went to professors’ salaries. A lot of it goes to heat, electricity, upkeep, administration and staff salaries. etc. But even then it might not be a lot. An extreme case is Cal Tech (whose tuition is 45,000 and has a student faculty ratio of 3. That would be $135,000 for an average Cal Tech compensation and I’m sure it’s higher. Recall those numbers must pay total compensation including retirement, health insurance, etc. Yale’s ratio about 6 to 1 which would be $240,000 in total compensation. Many colleges have larger ratios, but those usually have lower tuitions as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-tuition-bill-thoughts/764490/42 "2016-08-31T20:53:27Z")
Also, the assumption that “$40,000 per year x 20,000 students” means that the school is reeiving $800 million in revenues is obviously false, since some large percentage of the students _aren’t_ paying the full $40,000 annually. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-tuition-bill-thoughts/764490/43 "2016-08-31T23:14:23Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’d rather not pay it at all. Could you at least _pretend_ to read my post? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-tuition-bill-thoughts/764490/44 "2016-09-01T15:09:07Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Also, the assumption that “$40,000 per year x 20,000 students” means that the school is reeiving $800 million in revenues is obviously false, since some large percentage of the students _aren’t_ paying the full $40,000 annually. I never said anything about revenue did I? I’m only talking about Harvard’s claimed costs. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-tuition-bill-thoughts/764490/45 "2016-09-01T15:15:26Z")
OK, you were talking about costs. But where does Harvard claim instruction costs of $800 million? ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-tuition-bill-thoughts/764490/46 "2016-09-01T15:38:53Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > OK, you were talking about costs. But where does Harvard claim instruction costs of $800 million? I’ve been getting this sort of information here: [Education Data Initiative: College Costs & Student Loan Research](http://collegemeasures.org/4-year_colleges/institution/Harvard-University-MA/scorecard/cost-per-student/) But I’m not sure exactly where they’re getting their numbers. It can be a little complicated when you have professional schools, a hospital, massive research programs, etc. But they’re saying $40k per FTE student just for instruction. Not including student services, academic support, operations and maintenance, and institutional support. I’m not sure what all those terms mean. ETA they have a glossary: [Education Data Initiative: College Costs & Student Loan Research](http://collegemeasures.org/page/Glossary.aspx) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-tuition-bill-thoughts/764490.md?page=2)