This is as good a piece as I've read on the money in higher education in Texas. Big donors get invited to exclusive parties and football games and are potential appointees to governing board. A prevailing issue is a lack of diversity on higher education board in Texas even as universities themselves are diversifying.
-Angela Valenzuela
Two-thirds of board members overseeing Texas public universities are Abbott donors. They’re not shy about wielding influence.
In 2017, state Rep. Lyle Larson authored a bill to block any governor from appointing someone to a state board or commission who had contributed more than $2,500 a year to their campaign.
Larson, R-San Antonio, said he’d heard concerning stories from a constituent who was interested in joining the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, and later from a friend who was trying to join the Texas A&M Board of Regents.
Both people, Larson told The Texas Tribune, felt deterred after hearing that the best way to land an appointment on a prestigious state board or commission was to give the governor a donation that would get them noticed.
Larson’s bill passed the House with bipartisan support that year, but it never got a hearing in the Senate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, declined to advance the bill through the chamber, Larson said.
“He said, ‘No, that’s how people raise large sums of money when they want to run for governor,” said Larson, who is not seeking reelection this year and is backing Patrick’s Democratic opponent in November. Patrick did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who is seeking a third term, is the most prolific political fundraiser in modern state history. He has named donors to all sorts of boards and regulatory commissions across Texas — but they are especially concentrated on the boards running 36 public universities. The regents set tuition rates and faculty salaries, approve new degree programs, audit university finances, manage campus growth plans and hire and fire university presidents and football coaches.
