The bottom line is that Texas, which has some of the lowest (publicly-funded) college tuition rates in the nation, for both in- and out-of-state students did not maintain that distinction by accident or by spending a lot of taxpayer money. Perry made sure actual costs stayed low, instead of letting them balloon as in other states.
That the money spent and quality of education are not directly related has been shown many times.
From the article: The average in-state cost of a four-year degree in Texas, including books, is roughly $30,000
Strikes me as pretty steep for in-state. Perry’s goal is to get it down to $10K. The author’s $30K has to include not only tuition and books, but also #20K in housing, food and fees to reach that cool $30K.
Here are some comparables of top state schools in 3 states from USN&WR for 2010-11 tuition only:
UC –Berkeley (#1 Public; #22 National) $10,868 in-state; $33,747 out-of-state.
UVA (#2 Public; #25 National) $10,628 in-state; $33,574 out-of-state.
UT-Austin (#13 Public; #45 National) $9,418 in-state; $31,218 out-of-state