January 31, 2010
First copy free
theAccent.org
Volume 13, Issue 7
Discover the best weird Learn about ACC emergency plans pg. 3 places to visit in Austin Pg. 9 Who are ACC Students? Find Out pg. 4 News → Education
Initial higher education state budget features deep cuts for community colleges, financial aid programs slashed
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board seeks to base community college funding on Momentum Point system Karissa Rodriguez Editor-in-Chief
Hilary Shepherd News Editor
Hilary Shepherd News Editor
Student success rates at Texas community colleges will determine how much state funding colleges will receive under a new plan proposed by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). The Board is recommending to the state Legislature to partially base public, two-year colleges’ state funding on Momentum Points (or milestones) of student progression toward completion of a certificate or degree, or upon transfer to a four-year institution. Currently, state funding for community colleges is based on enrollment numbers from 12th class day data. “The current system bases funding solely on creating enrollments; there are no incentives in the current funding system for community colleges to find ways to improve the academic performance and completion rates of their students,” said THECB Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes. “I believe very strongly that if we create incentives for community colleges to graduate more students, have more students complete certificates and to have more students transfer to fouryear institutions, they will become much more aggressive about helping students succeed.” If the Texas Legislature approves the THECB’s proposal, 10 percent of higher education funding from the state would be allocated and dispersed based on the school’s Momentum Points. Momentum Points include the number of students who complete developmental math and English courses, first-year math and English courses, the first 15 and 30 hours of course credit, as well as the number of students who graduate or transfer. THECB’s funding formula has been met with some criticism from some community college advocates. “When you tie dollars to grades and to outcomes, we’re concerned that that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the instructor and on the institution to guarantee student success,” said Richard Moore, Texas Community College Teacher Association executive director. “And of course the challenge with that is when you start paying for grades, it can be very difficult to maintain standards, especially in the difficult financial environment that we’re in right now,” explained Moore referring to the budget cuts proposal to higher education agencies. But higher standards are exactly what Paredes and THECB want to create for community colleges. “We’d have more advising and more blended courses that increase reading outcomes. Institutions would redesign courses, and we would do things like combine reading and writing into a single developmental education course that would decrease the number of courses that students have to take in order to finish developmental education,” said Paredes. Colleges that don’t adequately meet Momentum Points would end up receiving less funding. “If community colleges or any institution of higher education doesn’t do all it can to help students succeed, then I think it’s probably appropriate that they get lower levels of funding than those who are working very hard at meeting this requirement for institutions in Texas,” said Paredes. The state Legislature is considering THECB’s new funding formula during this year’s session and will vote on a decision later this year. “If this legislation passes in this session, then institutions would have a full academic year to evaluate their student support programs and their academic support programs to make sure that they’re doing as much as they can to promote student success,” said Paredes. “So when the 2012 academic year begins, they should have the programs in place that will put them in the best position to secure not a smaller share of state funding, but a larger share of state funding.”
The Texas Legislative Budget Board released an initial draft of the 2012-2013 state budget on Jan. 18. The 140 day legislative session, that will last until May, must deal with the state’s current multibilliondollar deficit, projected to be as high as $27 billion. Because of the financial woes threatening Texas, both the House and Senate have called for drastic cuts in all sectors of government, from health and human services to criminal justice. Hit especially hard will be public and higher education – specifically, public, two-year colleges that depend highly on state funding. The House proposal plans to slash financial aid programs by $431 million, while the Senate’s proposal includes a $381 million cut. Under the proposals of both chambers, the number of Texas Grant recipients in 2013 would drop from 86,830 to 27,135, according to the Legislative Budget Board. “With people like me, who are the first in their family to attend college, anything helps. Financial aid programs make such a difference. To take that away from us is like taking away that chance of bettering ourselves, our families and our communities,” said Marcos Larios, Riverside student government association senator. The House proposal plans to close down four community colleges – Brazosport College, Frank Phillips College, Odessa College and Ranger College – as part of the plan to cut $145 million in state funding for all two-year colleges in Texas. “I think this will damage the path that Texas is on,” said Linda Young, ACC special assistant to the president for external affairs. “We really don’t understand how you can say that you value economic growth and a strong business sector if you devalue education. It can’t equate. It’s a foolish approach, and it can’t be positive. You just can’t come out with the right outcomes if you say, ‘Well, sure, everybody can be educated as long as they can afford it. Oh, but we’re cutting financial aid, too.’ It makes no sense. I’m amazed that they chose to make
this significant of a cut. It just seems a little unfair.” Currently, the state budget is $187.5 billion, with $88.5 billion in general (non-allocated) revenue. The House’s proposal for the upcoming biennium calls for a budget of $156.4 billion – a $31.1 billion difference, or a 16.6% decline – and general revenue at $79.3 billion – a $9.2 billion decrease or a 10.4% drop. The Senate, however, proposes a slightly larger budget of $158.7 billion, or a $28.8 billion decrease from the current budget. Both chambers won’t seek new revenue enhancers, such as raising taxes or using money set aside in the state’s $9.2 billion Rainy Day Fund, an emergency reserve to be used in times of economic shortfall, in order to balance out the proposed budget. Because of the severity of the budget cuts, ACC may have to resort to increases in tuition and less expenditures on technology and capitol spending in order to stay afloat in a period of booming enrollment. “There’s almost certainly going to be a tuition increase, but we have no idea how much,” said Ben Ferrell, executive vice president of finance and administration. “We’ve done things in our budget to scale it back so that when this day came, it wouldn’t shock the college and cause us to resort to radical measures. It’s a pretty hefty chunk, but we aren’t really surprised at how big it is. Still, it’s sort of the extreme of what we were expecting,” he said. Despite the major cuts in funding, the college is determined to prevent faculty layoffs and keep studentsupport services in place. “We don’t want to cut faculty or student support, because that’s where it hurts first,” said Young. “There are ways that the administration will work very hard to make sure the students aren’t affected. That’s very important.” Following the House and the Senate proposals, Governor Rick Perry will unveil his own budget plan during the first week of February.
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It’s just fascinating how far they’d go to save a pretty penny.
State community college funding in billions of dollars The Texas Legislature is in charge of appropriating general revenue funds to public community colleges. Formula appropriations for community colleges has increased 27 percent since the 2000 to 2001 biennium and has increased each biennium except for the 2004 to 2005 biennium when Texas was coping with a $10 billion shortfall. Currently, for the 2012 to 2013 biennium, the Legislature has predicted that the state has up to an estimated $27 billion shortfall, indicating even deeper cuts than 2004-2005.
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-Mary Grice, Rant & Rave, page 5
2.0 1.5 1.0
1.45
1.57
1.50
1.61
1.70
1.84
2000-01
2002-03
2004-05
2006-07
2008-09
2010-11
0.5
TRACKING FUNDING — The graph
to the right reflects the amount of appropriating general revenue funded to community colleges over the past ten years from the Texas Legislature.
0.0
? 2012-13
Source: Texas Association of Community Colleges