State Commissioner of Higher Education Harrison Keller is excited about the upcoming Community College Finance Commission report and said it has a good chance of passing the legislature.
“We’ve been working closely with Chairman Woody Hunt and members of the commission now for almost a year on these issues. Texas has taken, I think, the most comprehensive approach to community college finance of any state,” Keller said.
He added that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has received very good feedback and encouraging responses from the legislative leadership and the governor’s office.
“I have to say we have worked closely with the legislative leadership in the governor’s office throughout the process. They’ve been very supportive and helpful and so I’m encouraged about the momentum that we have. There are members of the legislature on the commission including Sen. (Brandon) Creighton, who chairs the Senate Education Committee and also has responsibility for higher education as well, and Sen. Larry Taylor, Rep. Gary VanDeaver and also Rep. Oscar Longoria,” Keller said.
“We’ve had experienced, thoughtful members of the legislature who have been working on the commission and working on the recommendations we could be in position for historic community college finance reform in Texas,” he added.
The report is due Nov. 1. They were due to meet in person Oct. 18 and have a couple of weeks to incorporate final changes and production of the report before it’s published. It will go out to members of the legislature and an electronic version will be posted online. It will also be distributed to community college presidents, chancellors and other stakeholders.
Keller said the coordinating board has made a legislative appropriations request for additional funding for student financial aid and targeted investments in short-term workforce credentials, changing workforce and other priorities.
“We’re hoping that the legislature can make some substantial strategic investments in higher education this session, including in community college finance. Our best estimate right now is that implementing the commission’s recommendations that are outlined in the draft recommendations released last month will cost approximately $650 million for the coming biennium,” Keller said. “But that includes additional funding for community college formulas that would almost entirely be distributed through a new outcomes-based formula. It would (make) substantial investments in student financial aid, including new targeted financial aid for students who are low-income in high schools and would be enrolled in dual credit programs and also for seed grants for new programs aligned with workforce needs.”
Other items would be new capabilities for shared services, more partnerships across the colleges to help improve operational efficiency and expanding the range of programs that students could access at colleges across the state.
Part of the draft report included shared services. Keller said there are a range of services that can be shared across institutions.
“We actually did a project for the Community College Finance Commission with (a) national policy research organization called Jobs for the Future where we dug deeper into these issues. We did a statewide listening tour with chancellors and presidents across Texas and did in-depth interviews with representatives from about 10 institutions. It seems like there might be opportunities around four key areas. But particular needs of colleges vary, so some colleges are just interested in getting better pricing for example around modern technology-based systems to support their operations. If you’re a smaller college, you tend to pay higher prices for software licenses. Can you use the purchasing power of the state to reduce the cost of those kinds of software applications?”
“There are some colleges that would be interested in partnering with other colleges, or even universities, or university systems to even share administrative functions. So for example you could have a larger college help run the payroll for several colleges,” Keller said.
The third item that came up is shared resources to help colleges understand what’s happening in the regional and in the state labor market.
“How is the demand for different kinds of credentials changing; how are the job markets changing; what are the wages looking like for graduates who have different kinds of credentials; and then finally several of the colleges talked to us about standing up more robust state infrastructure for sharing online courses across institutions so that could be particularly important for smaller and rural serving colleges so that they can offer a broader range of programs,” Keller said.
For example, they could put a marker down that said every student across Texas should be able to access all direct transfer associate degrees through their local community college.
“I’m enthusiastic about the feedback from the colleges and the input they’ve given us. So far, it’s been very helpful and constructive and so I feel like we’ve got some good early traction and excitement among the colleges and work with the policymakers for advancing some really transformative changes to community college finance,” Keller said.
One of the key points Hunt made early in the process was that he didn’t want this to result in a report that would sit on the shelf.
The commission includes Hunt, three members of the public, four legislators and four community college presidents. There are also workgroups for workforce education, student support services, and college operations.
“Over several months, we’ve consulted with leading national experts on each of these issues. We’ve heard from officials in other states about how they’ve been approaching community college finance issues and operational issues and what kind of strategies they’ve deployed to advance student success,” Keller said. “We’ve also commissioned a battery of technical analyses about who enrolls in our Texas community colleges, about what kind of results we’re seeing and about how our job markets are changing; how the demand for different kinds of credentials has been changing.”
They also conducted a statewide poll of 5,000 Texans asking for their views on, for example, how the finance system should support colleges especially in providing programs that are aligned with emerging workforce needs.
“That’s why I said early on this is the most comprehensive review I’ve seen any state take at least in recent years. When you make significant changes to a finance system, there are always going to be some individual institutions that might benefit more than others. For example, the recommendations would include new adjustments for student needs. Students who are low-income, or students who have been out of college for a while and might need to brush up, or students who are coming out of high school not quite college ready and might need to be remediated. All of those students are going to need additional academic support services and those cost money and those additional costs have never been recognized in our community college finance formulas before,” Keller said.
The smaller colleges in particular would benefit substantially from the kinds of changes that the commission’s recommending.
“There would be new adjustments for the size of the colleges and also a new guarantee on the first few pennies of the property taxes that are levied by those local colleges, so hopefully if adopted, that could both generate substantially more funding for community colleges but also enable them to lower their property tax rates for the taxpayers and their taxing districts,” Keller said.
“It certainly would free up resources that they could use for facilities, equipment, technology and other needs,” he added.
