There already exists such a fund, but it is restricted for the use of The University of Texas, Texas A & M University, and Prairie View A & M. The new fund would be available to all Texas universities.
There is no provision in this amendment for adding money to the fund. It's just a wider division. The fund is based on revenues from land owned by the fund (mostly oil royalties) and is a legacy of the old land grant system.
From the link:
While proponents of this say that it is an effort to increase funding for our Universities that will result in a higher profile and thus greater academic competitiveness, this is really about providing a limitation on other universities around the state so that an elite handful can have more money to play with.
Technically, this proposal wouldn’t raise taxes, as it is money that’s already been set aside for education, however we believe, as do others, that this will simply result in and encourage further reliance on the taxpayers, rather than causing universities to seek additional private funding.
The other argument being used that this would somehow elevate the profile of these “research universities” and thus provide some additional benefits to the students who attend them, is completely unsupportable with any amount of research. Most universities simply act like “compulsive gamblers and exiled royalty; there is never enough money to satisfy their desires.” That quote is from former Harvard president Derek Bok.
A big fat HELL NO.
I was at Tech when it became a "research" school. The faculty became, and continues to be, indifferent to the students. You know them little people the damn school was created to serve.