University Star

Farouk Shami, Houston hair care mogul and Democratic candidate for governor, addressed students Wednesday night on the subject of higher education and creating green jobs.

Shami, who was in San Marcos following the trail left by gubernatorial counterpart Bill White, told members of College Democrats he would have the state pay 100 percent of community college tuition if elected.

“We need community college to be free,” Shami said. “The state is responsible to provide that.”

Shami, creator of CHI hair care products, said education in Texas should be affordable for every student.

“We cannot hike up tuition and expect to lead the world in education.” Shami said.

Texas has only two public tier-one universities. The candidate questioned why California and New York have more.

Shami, who attained a cosmetology degree in Arkansas, said he would reorganize the State Board of Education by replacing the politicians with experts.

The self-proclaimed businessman spoke about his guarantee of creating more jobs.

“I want to help people,” Shami said. “I’ve made enough money. We need to start with everybody having a job.”

Shami, who personally funds his campaign, called himself “living proof” the American dream is possible. He said with companies increasingly sending manufacturing jobs to China and India, the American dream has been exported.

Shami said by focusing on solar power, he would be able to generate more than 100,000 green jobs within the state.
“We will open hundreds of factories in small communities,” Shami said.

The Palestinian-born Shami said his American values are what prompted him to bring business from overseas in 2007 to Houston.
“My heart is American, my soul is American,” Shami said. “The State of Texas should be the richest state in the world.”

Shami concluded his visit by signing his autograph on one audience member’s flat iron.

Adrian Zamora, political science senior and president of Texas State College Democrats, said he was pleased with the turnout.

“We accomplished what we were trying to do,” Zamora said. “We got students to attend and that’s our main goal, we’re trying to inform students.”

Sam Ortega, political science senior, said Shami performed better than he did against Bill White during Monday night’s debate.

“It seemed like his speech was short on specifics, but big on a lot of grand details,” Ortega said.

Greg Foster, counseling and guidance graduate, said he liked Shami’s idea of providing low-interest loans to small businesses. Foster said he felt the gubernatorial candidate was non-committal when answering the question of how he funds would generate without raising taxes.