A major victory this legislative session happened earlier in the session in the House, and will need some help getting through the Senate.
House Bill 1303 returns a level of control over college tuition to the legislature by a vote of 59 Yeas to 31
This has been a long time coming, in 2009 the effort to return oversight of tuition to the legislature garnered only 38 votes in the House.
In 2011 the effort gained 3 votes for a total of 41 in the House.
There was no effort in 2013 to take back the power.
These efforts since 2009 have been primarily led by the conservative wing of the Republican majority - with Democrats and moderate Republicans rejecting the idea that the legislature should exert authority over higher education.
It should be noted that during this time, each session the Democratic caucus of the House has offered up 2-year tuition freezes that included the $30+ million in added appropriations needed to achieve a 0% tuition increase each of those years.
Republicans en masse have rejected that approach.
