AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation's Dr. Thomas Lindsay, Director of the Center for Higher Education, authored pieces in the Houston Chronicle and the Daily Caller on the possible impeachment of University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall.
In the Houston Chronicle, Dr. Lindsay writes, "The affair looks to be a case study in what happens when the higher education establishment confronts accountability. It also demonstrates why the Texas Public Policy Foundation has for years championed greater transparency, without which there cannot be full accountability to students, parents and taxpayers.
"This would be the first impeachment of a regent in Texas history. Since being appointed a University of Texas System regent in 2011, Hall has made open-records requests in furtherance of his constitutionally mandated task of oversight of the institutions placed in his trust. The most-often cited reason for Hall's deserving impeachment is the overly burdensome volume of these requests … After recent corporate and university scandals, one would think that board members intent on asking tough questions would be applauded. Instead, the Legislature may dance the two-step around transparency, all in an effort to defeat one man. If they are successful, it won't be Hall alone who loses. It will be every Texas student, parent and taxpayer."
Dr. Lindsay expands on these points in the Daily Caller: "If successful, impeachment would smother in its crib the growing movement for higher-education transparency. Given Texas' prominence, the death rattle would reverberate nationally. Texas' higher-education wars matter far beyond the Lone Star State. Skyrocketing tuition, crushing student-loan debt, poor student learning, and rampant grade inflation afflict students, parents, and taxpayers across America – and things aren't getting better."
The Houston Chronicle commentary may be read in its entirety here http://bit.ly/17jKAYW and the Daily Caller commentary here http://bit.ly/1aUnngd.
Thomas K. Lindsay, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He is a former deputy chairman and chief operating officer of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and has more than two decades of experience in higher education management and instruction.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
Primary website: www.TexasPolicy.com
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