Presentation Title XX XX, 2014
Dec 28, 2015
We’re a pathway to success that connects people to higher education and the
skills they need to be job-ready.
We’re constantly innovating new ways of teaching and improving the ways students move along that pathway – from high school to college and from community colleges to four-
year institutions.
More than 50 percent of the people we surveyed have attended or have family members who have attended a
community college.
Why Community Colleges?
We focus on success for every student in Texas, no matter their age,
abilities or aspirations.
We prepare students for the workforce or transfer to a university, build professional skills, and support lifelong
learning. No other institution does all that for so many Texans — hundreds of thousands all over the state, preparing for
today and tomorrow.
Nearly 80 percent of the people we surveyed agree that the community college experience improved the skills of themselves or their family members who attended.
Why Community Colleges?
We’re an investment in successthat delivers impressive returns for the state of Texas
and for the communities we serve
Community colleges play a critical role in keeping Texas competitive today and tomorrow. We are the most effective way of maintaining a skilled and educated workforce of job-
ready Texans.
Through 2020 – 65% of the jobs that will be created will require education beyond a high school diploma. – Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University
Why Community Colleges?
Adoption of New Funding Mechanism
including student success points that provide colleges with funding incentives to help students find and stay on their
path to success
Agreement for Employee Benefits Cost-sharing with the Statehelping to provide stability for college budgets
New collaborations with K-12using HB5 reforms as a framework for collaborationto expand and enhance early college experiences
83RD SESSION LEGISLATIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The member colleges of TACC and CCATT, working with stakeholders and
the THECB, have created a 5-point program of recommendations to best
support students, colleges, communities, and Texas.
84TH SESSION LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
1. Workforce and Skills Alignment
The 5- Point Campaign
2. Measuring and Funding Success
3. College Readiness
4. Transfer and Articulation
5. Texans in Community Colleges
Policy Recommendations:• Continue and enhance funding for
the Skills Development Fund to allow community colleges to work with multiple employers to better serve students and meet statewide workforce needs
• Continue and enhance funding for the Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) programso community colleges can purchase equipment to provide state-of-the-art workforce training
Policy Statement:• Develop a process for community
colleges in regions with demonstrated needs to offer bachelor’s degrees to students.
WORKFORCE AND SKILLS ALIGNMENT
Community colleges help sustain Texas
prosperity with essential workforce
development opportunities for
hundreds of thousands of Texans, all over the state, preparing them for the jobs of today
and tomorrow.
MEASURING AND FUNDING SUCCESS
By helping students achieve their goals for learning, community
colleges support student success
throughout Texas — no matter where
students are starting from or where their
educational paths take them.
Policy Recommendations:
• $2.011 billion in instructional funding for the 2016-17 biennium as recommended by THECB
• Continue with funding strategy implemented in 2014-15:$50 million for core operationsStudent Success Points: 10% of remainder
Contact Hours: 90% of remainder. • Develop new Student Success
Points system with THECBthat allows institutions to compete against their own past performance (as outlined in Rider 23)
COLLEGE READINESS
Community colleges provide an essential
gateway to higher education for hundreds
of thousands of Texans, collaborating with K-12 districts to provide innovative approaches and
easy access all over the state.
Policy Recommendations:• Continue state funding for the New
Mathways Project at the Dana Center at UT-Austina statewide approach to reforming developmental education that accelerates student learning in advanced mathematics.
Policy Statements:• Fund both community colleges and
school districts to support the new way forward outlined in HB5, with increased collaboration on early college experiences and improved alignment and pathways for student success.
TRANSFER AND ARTICULATION
Community colleges need to be able to
provide students with easy pathways to
achieve their goals and measure their progress as they move into the workforce or transfer
for further higher education.
Policy Recommendations:• Require the use of common
course numbering by all public institutions of higher education in Texas.This change will enhance the ability of students and college advisors to have a clear understanding of course transfer. Currently, all community colleges in Texas utilize the common course numbering system, but not all public universities do the same
TEXANS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Community colleges meet multiple needs for
people and places all over Texas: higher
education, job readiness, adult basic
education, skills building, and lifelong
learning and enrichment.
Policy Recommendations:• Provide sufficient funding for Adult
Basic Education (ABE).Community colleges are mandated as open-enrollment institutions to provide ABE, but the state only funds services for about 100,000 of Texas’ more than 3 million eligible ABE students.
• Fund Texas Educational Opportunity Grants (TEOG) in line with any increase in Texas Grants funding.The ability to afford college opportunities is an issue that many students struggle to overcome. Less than ten percent of all grant aid to community college students comes from the state of Texas
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Sign up: www.TxSuccess.com
Contact your elected officials: www.Texas.gov