Roy Maynard: Early Returns

When early voting starts on Monday, we're going to be staring at some big numbers with lots and lots of zeros. Even at the state level, sums like $500 million, $1 billion, $5 billion, $3 billion and $250 million can seem to add up to real money.

Those are the amounts we're being asked to approve all at once - and that's not including the $125 million in county-issued bonds we're being asked to ap-prove for a new jail and justice complex.

The numbers can be over-whelming. But one proposition is different, and shouldn't get lost amid the constitutional clutter we'll be faced with.

Proposition 2 would allow the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to issue $500 million in bonds for low-interest, low-fee student loans. Unlike other bonds before voters on Nov. 6, these won't affect property taxes - they'll be repaid by the students themselves.

Whit Rider, a member of the Texas Higher Education Coordi-nating Board, stopped in with state Sen. Kevin Eltife for an informal discussion with the Tyler Paper editorial board.

"The last time bonds were is-sued was 1999, and there was about $400 million," Rider explained. "If we do not pass this bond issue, those bonds will run out in 2009."

The low interest rate - 6 per-cent fixed - makes these loans attractive, particularly to middle-class families and even higher-income families, who don't qual-ify for needs-based assistance.

Just such loans helped me at-tend college.

My parents were both teachers, so we weren't poor or disadvan-taged by any measure. Yet money was tight on those educators' salaries, so my parents just weren't able to offer much help when it came time to pay tuition, books and fees.

And it's not just me. In the last 10 years alone, this program has provided 490 students in Tyler with $5.2 million in low-interest loans to help pay for college.

Eltife also sees Proposition 2 as a good thing for Texas.

"This is just a tool to help stu-dents get through school," he said. "With tuition continuing to go through the roof, this is a tool students and parents desperately need. What we're trying to do is expand the line of credit, so we have more dollars to put into the program."

Right now, there are many more applicants for the loans than there are funds.

"If voters don't approve it, there will be a lot of families turned down," he said. "We'll have to tell a lot of people no."

Eltife notes that some problems seen in the private student loan market - the practice of re-selling loans - don't apply here.

"There's a lot of controversy about student loans being sold on secondary market," he said. "But these are never sold to another lender."

I'm going to vote in favor of Proposition 2. I hope you do, too.



Early Returns is the political obser-vations column of staff writer Roy Maynard, who can be reached at 903-596-6291 or at roymay-nardtmt@gmail.com.

Roy Maynard
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