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Texas’s education plan doesn’t make too much sense, researchers say.
Texas is unique among states, but in many ways its size and demographics represent the nation. Texas, more specifically, has a lot of Hispanic students, and not a lot of college graduates. One of the state’s plans to address that has to do with creating more tier-one colleges. That’s probably not going to work. According to an article by Reeve Hamilton in The Texas Tribune:
The state… faces some stark racial and economic disparities in educational attainment, which, unless they are addressed, could exacerbate the state’s completion crisis as demographics shift. Despite these many moving parts, [University of Pennsylvania researcher Joni] Finney did note that the state’s “Closing the Gaps” plan addresses these issues. That plan seeks to bring Texas’ higher-education performance up to par with other states by 2015 — with a broad base support that Finney said she has not found in other states.
But she said the “Closing the Gaps” goals are unlikely to be reached unless the state addresses the financing of community colleges and reconsiders its investment in building more national research universities.
The majority of the state’s first-year college students are in community colleges, and that share is expected to grow. As tuition rises at four-year universities, many students opt — and are even encouraged — to begin at the cheaper two-year institutions.
In 2009, the report points out, students in Texas state colleges paid 72 percent more out of pocket than they did in 2003. That’s perhaps the important thing to address here.
The demographic group Texas needs to target, Finney says, if it wants to dramatically improve its education rate, is that composed of low-income students attending community colleges. It needs to improve the quality of its community colleges and reduce the cost of tuition at these institutions. Between 1985 and 2007 the proportion of community college expenses covered by the state declined from 61 percent to 28 percent. Because local taxes haven’t increased to make up the difference, students just have to pay higher tuition. That’s no way to get more people through college.
According to the report, by Finney and colleague Laura Perna, the goals Texas has set, “increasing college enrollment, raising the number of degrees awarded, pushing the state’s colleges and universities up in the national rankings, and luring more federal research dollars” are simply “not compatible,” not unless the state is prepared to massively increase state support for higher education, which it isn’t.
Part of the trouble here might be that the idea of building up more tier one universities might be attractive to funders and taxpayers, and might look like a nice way to attract federal research dollars and high-paying out-of-state students, but it doesn’t address the fundamental problem Texas faces.
Texas, if it wants to become a well-educated state, needs more cheap community colleges. Texas is one of the biggest states in the union. It has lots and lots of residents who want to go to college. And those people don’t need, and won’t benefit from, “pushing the state’s colleges and universities up in the national rankings and luring more federal research dollars.”
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Leon Toubin on April 20, 2012 5:01 PM:
Leon,
I have thought all along that none of our ambitious goals will be accomplished without more help from the State. Governor Perry is at it again: No new taxes.
dave mazella on April 21, 2012 11:24 AM:
As someone who teaches at one of the schools aspiring to Tier One status, I think this analysis is misleading on a few fronts. The first is the notion that creating more research universities in a state with a growing population is a diversion. The reality is that we could be graduating more, and more diverse, students with advanced and professional degrees (engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc.) by supporting these schools and their students with more opportunities and more financial aid. These students are already there and poised to succeed, but they have big financial obstacles with current aid policies at the state and federal level. The existing flagship schools and systems are at capacity, and so the students in the fastest growing demographics (esp. Latino/a) will not get access without more top-tier institutions.
The other issue is the quality and mission of community colleges. The six-year completion rate for community college students is about 30%, whereas for university students it's about 56%. Those students in CCs should be educated, but just creating more CC slots is not going to lead to higher percentages of graduating students, because those students need significant remediation or developmental coursework, and TX schools are no better than others at providing this kind of concentrated instruction.
Finally, the aligned research and teaching missions of the new Tier One schools are not about sacrificing undergrad education, but about doing it better in an era of dwindling resources. This is especially true when the state continues to reduce its support. Outside research is the only way for public institutions to keep their own funding stable, when the legislatures fail to support them or their mission.
TX universities have had to endure a lot of irrational and/or counter-productive policymaking the past few years, but this initiative to grow more Tier One schools still makes sense. What we need in the state is a much more comprehensive system of financial aid so that students can carry reasonable courseloads, not work too many hours, and finish in a timely way.