Texas colleges, universities brace for hard changes

As graduate students from Houston to Austin to College Station protest proposals to tax the value of their “free” tuition, Texas colleges and universities are bracing for changes to higher education proposed by a Republican-led Congress, including an overhaul of the Higher Education Act. Behind-the-scenes fights are brewing over issues ranging from taxing university endowments and graduate student tuition waivers to eliminating interest subsidies on student loans, as congressional leaders work to balance tax-reform proposals and address voter concerns about the value of higher education.