Interest Convergence and Higher Education Funding: The South Texas/Border Initiative

• In Event: 66.089 - Sheraton Roundtable Session 13 - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 66.089-4 - Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education Politics

Abstract

Between 1990 and 2003, the Texas legislature allocated approximately $880 million to 9 institutions who benefitted from the South Texas Border Initiative (Flack, 2003). This paper argues that the introduction of the NAFTA made the South Texas region economically crucial to the state of Texas, and this program ushered in new focus on the region. What we argue is that with the possibility of a free trade zone located on the United States-Mexico border, the borderlands region became economically and strategically important to the state of Texas around the time that the LULAC lawsuit was filed.

Authors

• Erin Doran, Iowa State University

• Vincent D Carales, University of Houston