"Providing" for State College Funding

    On The Texas Tribune, there is an article tilted, "State College Funding Turns on Definition of 'Provide,'" that talks about how the State Constitution says that "the state will provide for the maintenance, support and direction of a University of the first class." This ultimately means that the state has to dedicate half of every dollar to higher education. According to the article, nowadays only 13 percent goes to the University of Texas at Austin and 22 percent to Texas A&M University. So the question that is posed is, is the state really providing for the first class education stated in the State Constitution? Some individuals might say that the state does not provide enough money to provide for the maintenance, support and the direction of a University. One reasoning for this conclusion may be that if the state were providing enough money, then why are the tuition rates so high? The 13 or 22 percent being offered at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M seems to be considerable low compared to the amount of tuition owed. On the other hand some individuals might say that the state is providing enough funding for a University of the first class. Due to the fact that the state is only part of a whole that makes up funding, it is up to the other methods of funding to pick up the supposed slack and not the state's. With that being said, is it really legally the job or even the concern of the state to provide more than constitutionally stated?