Will one size fit all tuition reform work?

As the Texas Legislature tackles all the "pressing issues" from steroids to gambling  and everything in between, one major issue that hits close to home for many people is the issue of rapidly rising tuition costs. As a student I agree with many Texas Senators that the cost of tuition must be at least kept somewhat reasonable...although, the word reasonable is debatable. After reading an article in the Austin American Statesman this past Thursday about growing support in the Texas Senate for tuition reform, I began to see a battle emerging between the people, therefore the Senators that represent them, and the public Colleges and Universities. Six years ago lawmakers granted public university governing boards the power to set tuition costs. In those six years "average tuition and fees at the state's 35 public universities has risen 86%." According to my calculations, that comes out to over a 14% yearly increase in tuition and fees since 2003. A chart included with the article shows all the numbers plain and simple as they are; as the years increase, so do the costs of tuition. 

What I find incredible about this is that it took the legislature six years with tuition rising to this point in order to address the situation again. The article mentions a few proposals from different Senators about what to do to solve the problem, all of them sound better than what we have now. My problem with the whole thing is that i cannot seem to understand how it works that you can enter college, say in 2002, paying $2, 741 in tuition and somehow graduate in 2005 paying nearly DOUBLE at $4, 607. That's crazy to me. Another huge reason why this needs to be addressed now is that the population of Texas is rapidly changing. As I wrote in a previous post the number of Hispanic children in Texas classrooms has been increasing dramatically, therefore creating a new generation of students bound for college that will have a hard time paying the tuition as it is now, without any more increases. The two main proposals that the article revolves around is one by D- Judith Zaffirini from Laredo who proposes that tuition increases be limited to 5% a year. The other proposal by Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, would propose a moratorium on tuition for two years and limit the increases afterwards to the rate of inflation. Although both are very different proposals, Senator Dan Patrick from Houston stated that "Obviously, there is unified support in the Texas Senate to do something." In my opinion, it's about time.