Home Products Informing Policy Development About Equitable Funding Levels for Texas Community Colleges

Informing Policy Development About Equitable Funding Levels for Texas Community Colleges

Southwest | October 27, 2022

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Time: 3:00–4:30 p.m. Central Time

Location: Virtual

Public community colleges serve a vital role in offering individuals from various social backgrounds enhanced opportunities in the labor market and subsequent financial stability. Determining how to fund community colleges in an adequate and equitable manner to achieve the desired outcomes for students is a hotly debated issue.

In Texas, the Success Points funding system calculates the distribution of state dollars to community colleges. Points are based on outcomes such as students’ successful completion of credits, transfers from two-year general education to four-year degree programs, and completion of two-year degree programs. However, performance-based funding systems such as Success Points do not take into account that the cost of reaching outcome goals will likely vary based on student characteristics and context—factors that have long been considered in K?12 funding policy.

This webinar will highlight findings from REL Southwest’s research report An Examination of the Costs of Texas Community Colleges. Professor Rick Kahlenberg will discuss the importance of community colleges for socioeconomic mobility. Texas Commissioner of Higher Education Harrison Keller will describe the key policy issues that led to the state’s need for community college funding reform. Researcher Bruce Baker then will present the project analysis and report findings, which include a suggested formula based on empirical cost-based funding weights estimated using data on Texas community colleges. The presentation will end with a panel discussion featuring Drs. Kahlenberg, Keller, and Baker as well as William Serrata, a community college president, and Martha Snyder, a higher education federal and state policy expert.

Speakers:

• Jesse Levin, PhD, Principal Research Economist, American Institutes for Research (AIR)
• Bruce Baker, PhD, Professor, University of Miami
• Rick Kahlenberg, Professorial Lecturer, George Washington University Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration
• Harrison Keller, PhD, Commissioner of Higher Education, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
• Martha Snyder, Senior Director, HCM Strategists
• William Serrata, PhD, President, El Paso Community College

Who will benefit: The primary intended audience for this event is state-level policymakers and stakeholders in Texas and in other states working to promote the outcomes of students attending public community colleges through adequate and equitable funding systems.