In 2011, Texas Governor Perry challenged universities to craft what came to be called “$10,000 degrees.” The Texas Affordable Baccalaureate program best incorporates the means specified by the governor and could serve as a model for the country. For the first time, the college affordability debate is focusing on how schools themselves can lower their prices, rather than how taxpayers can come up with more money to subsidize public higher education
Higher Education
UT-Austin Puts the “Core” Back in Core Curriculum
For decades, the American university has been drifting away from its most important purpose: giving students a common education in the knowledge and principles they need to become educated citizens. The core curriculum was supposed to provide that common ground. Instead, it became a collection of distribution requirements—a little History here, a little PoliSci there,...
September 9, 2026