From Blinn College: On the Road to the 85th Legislative Session and Discussion of TACC (Texas Association of Community Colleges) and CCATT (Community College Association of Texas Trustees)

Blinn College offers a terrific set of power points focusing on issues relevant to community colleges in the state and their strategy for achieving their objectives in the 85th session of the Texas Legislature.

These will be worth looking at in class.

- Click here for them.

From the Texas Tribune: Abbott to Call for Credit for Massive Online Courses

This promises to shake things up for all of us.

- Click here for the story:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott will call for students to receive college credit for taking massive open online courses — often referred to as "MOOCs" — as part of the higher education plan he unveils on Tuesday, sources with knowledge of his plans say.

Abbott is scheduled to lay out his higher education plan in an afternoon speech at the University of Texas at Dallas.

MOOCs are online courses with unlimited enrollment that anyone — regardless of whether they are enrolled at a university — can sign up for and take for free. Right now, the courses rarely earn students college credit.

Abbott intends to make the case that to improve flexibility and affordability in higher education, credit should be offered for completing such courses.

Completion rates are low however, so not everyone sees these as a good idea. His opponent in the gubernatorial race does not mention MOOCs in her higher proposals.

Abbott's Democratic opponent, state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, has already unveiled her higher education policy proposals. Her plan makes no mention of MOOCs. Her proposals pertaining to affordability include providing more funding to the state's main grant program for low-income students, expanding access to a state loan program designed to encourage timely graduation and establishing a sales tax exemption on textbooks.

Assuming the change is adopted, what does this mean for community colleges?

- Here's one opinion:

Community colleges comprise a unique sector of higher education focused on the teaching and learning process. They have their own history, mission and diverse student populations, each member of which has distinct needs and aspirations. Further, community colleges have developed a considerable body of empirical knowledge and hands-on experience in providing effective pedagogical experiences. In communities across America, these institutions provide centers for lifelong learning, both by degrees and community education courses. Considering this context, MOOCs are unlikely to completely reinvent community college education or, for that matter, any other sector of higher education, as their most ardent proponents have argued. On the other hand, they have in their early use, demonstrated enough potential in expanding access and learning options to be considered more than a fad as critics of MOOCs have warned.

One author sees the push towards MOOCs as apart of a conservative war on college.

The outlook for funding community colleges

Not good according to the Community College Journal. Supporters must advocate more effectively for funding.

- Click here for the article.

There was a golden era, in the 1960s and 1970s, when beaming lawmakers smiled on community colleges. Public funds flowed like a river that nourished the nation’s two-year institutions. Enrollments grew and everyone was happy, naturally.

But that was then. Over the past few decades, public funds have dried up, and formerly munificent politicians are now beleaguered by hordes of constituents seeking financial support. Legislators charged with fiduciary oversight of municipal and state budgets increasingly demand that recipients of public money demonstrate return on investment.

Amid greater scarcity and scrutiny, community college leaders have had to become better advocates for their institutions. Presidents and other leaders are expected to get buy-in from colleagues on campus and to build infrastructures for projecting influence in multiple spheres; they have to convene allies and build coalitions; they’re coming up with ever more complex advocacy strategies and they have to show measurable results.

“The old model was as long as enrollment was going up, we would get more money from the state,” says Noah Brown, president of the Association of Community College Trustees. “Over the long haul, say 20 or 30 years, state support as a percentage of our [community college] budgets has been declining. We are doing less well as a sector in capturing a percentage of public support. I don’t think that is going to turn around. Most of the people I know are not predicting that we will see a groundswell of public support like we saw in the ’60s and ’70s.

“Everybody is fighting harder for a smaller share of support,” Brown continues. “The more we can communicate to policymakers the return on investment, the better off we’ll be. We used to tell nice anecdotes about single moms saved by the community college. Now you need real data.”

From Wonkblog: A snapshot of today's college students

Most of the discourse on college education seems based on a incorrect assumption of who college students really are. A plurality g to community colleges, a quarter have children, and most are independent.

But you probably knew that already.

This day in history - the first junior college opens in the state

From the TSHA, note the constitutional issue it raised in bold.

On this day in 1925, San Antonio College formally opened as University Junior College with an enrollment of 200 students. It is the oldest public two-year college in Texas still in operation. Classes were first conducted in San Antonio's old Main High School building. Under the administration of the University of Texas and in the absence of an appropriation to support the junior college, fees were charged on a quarterly basis. The state attorney general ruled in December 1925 that operation of a junior college by the University of Texas violated the state constitution; thus, supervision of the college, renamed San Antonio Junior College, passed to the San Antonio board of education for the second year of operation. In 1926 the college was assigned part of the building on Alamo Street formerly occupied by the German-English School. James Otis Loftin, president from 1941 to 1955, oversaw the period of the college's greatest growth. San Antonio College was adopted as the official name in 1948, and shortly thereafter the school moved to a thirty-seven-acre campus on San Pedro Avenue. The Alamo Community College District, consisting of San Antonio College, St. Philip's College, and two other campuses, enrolled nearly 49,000 students in the spring of 2003.

Community college grads will one day rule the world

OK maybe not - but CNN Money reports that they out earn students with bachelors degrees.

The increase in wages for community college grads is being driven by a high demand for people with so-called "middle-skills" that often require no more than an associate's degree, such as lab technicians, teachers in early childhood programs, computer engineers, draftsmen, radiation therapists, paralegals, and machinists.
With a two-year community college degree, air traffic controllers can make $113,547, radiation therapists $76,627, dental hygienists $70,408, nuclear medicine technologists $69,638, nuclear technicians $68,037, registered nurses $65,853, and fashion designers $63,170, CareerBuilder.com reported in January.
- See more at: http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/26/pf/college/community-college-earnings/#sthash.z4z28ylv.dpuf

The increase in wages for community college grads is being driven by a high demand for people with so-called "middle-skills" that often require no more than an associate's degree, such as lab technicians, teachers in early childhood programs, computer engineers, draftsmen, radiation therapists, paralegals, and machinists.
With a two-year community college degree, air traffic controllers can make $113,547, radiation therapists $76,627, dental hygienists $70,408, nuclear medicine technologists $69,638, nuclear technicians $68,037, registered nurses $65,853, and fashion designers $63,170, CareerBuilder.com reported in January.
- See more at: http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/26/pf/college/community-college-earnings/#sthash.z4z28ylv.dpuf

The "middle skills" we teach pay well.

According to the report - our success rate at ACC is 42%.

Thanks to a student for sending this to me. Keep them coming.

The increase in wages for community college grads is being driven by a high demand for people with so-called "middle-skills" that often require no more than an associate's degree, such as lab technicians, teachers in early childhood programs, computer engineers, draftsmen, radiation therapists, paralegals, and machinists.
With a two-year community college degree, air traffic controllers can make $113,547, radiation therapists $76,627, dental hygienists $70,408, nuclear medicine technologists $69,638, nuclear technicians $68,037, registered nurses $65,853, and fashion designers $63,170, CareerBuilder.com reported in January.
- See more at: http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/26/pf/college/community-college-earnings/#sthash.z4z28ylv.dpuf

Nearly 30% of Americans with associate's degrees now make more than those with bachelor's degrees, according to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. In fact, other recent research in several states shows that, on average, community college graduates right out of school make more than graduates of four-year universities. - See more at: http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/26/pf/college/community-college-earnings/#sthash.z4z28ylv.dpuf

Does online education work?

As you all know, this is a huge trend in education - and something you are all involved in to some degree (that's why I run this blog). Its been promoted as an improvement over in-class instruction because it allows for flexibility for students who have other obligations. It also allows for students to sign up for classes in a range of institutions which not only increases their options, but allows them to be taught be top level professors.

But after a few years of online education, research (policy evaluation) throws cold water on its effects:

First, student attrition rates — around 90 percent for some huge online courses — appear to be a problem even in small-scale online courses when compared with traditional face-to-face classes. Second, courses delivered solely online may be fine for highly skilled, highly motivated people, but they are inappropriate for struggling students who make up a significant portion of college enrollment and who need close contact with instructors to succeed.

The research comes form the Community College Research Center at Columbia University.

What's to happen to community colleges this session?

The Fort Worth Star Telegram tries to find out.

Few lawmakers ever have anything negative to say about us - and like to highlight our ability to assist veteran's and train the work force, but that doesn't always translate into funding. The preliminary budgets cut funding about 5%, despite recent increases in enrollment, but one legislator in the story suggested that funding may eventually be increased.

"What we've been facing is jokingly what I would call the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome," said Bill Holda, president of Kilgore College and board chairman of the Texas Association of Community Colleges.

"We can't get any respect."

Holda said the state's 50 community colleges, with over 725,000 students, constitute more than half the total enrollment in higher education but "have not had the prestige" of better-funded four-year universities, many of which have big budgets and nationally recognized research and athletic programs.

Nevertheless, community colleges have legions of defenders, including many in the Legislature. They say the schools are at the front lines of building an educated, competitive workforce.

Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, who has more than a half-dozen community college systems in his East Texas district, predicts that community colleges will ultimately escape a cut and may even get an increase.

Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, a member of the House Higher Education Committee, said: "Community colleges, as far as I'm concerned, are where it's happening. They're a big part of making education more affordable and more accessible for our students."

We'll follow this over the session.

Community College's Fight Back, Part 2

Just to confuse you, community college's themselves are represented by the Texas Association of Community Colleges, TACC. Think of TCCTA as a bunch of cc instructors and TACC as a bunch of CC presidents. Their interests don't always complement each other. In this case they do. The TACC has also issued a statement on the budget.

The question will be whether their response will be coordinated with TCCTA's and other institutions, or whether internal conflicts will weaken the response. To give you an idea of how conflicts can weaken group responses, consider this. Isn't it, in a sense, good news for ACC if Brazosport College is not longer funded and potentially closed? Their students will most likely come here. It improves our numbers. Just sayin' ....  

(Austin, Texas) Today the Texas House of Representatives released HB1 and it is evident that community colleges were sacrificed to the state’s budget deficit. At a time of historic student enrollment growth the total cut to community colleges exceeds $767 million. This amount is comprised of $142 million in formula funding cuts from the last budget cycle, $342 million in student enrollment growth not funded, and $283 million reduction in employee group health insurance. These reductions will seriously impact the state’s ability to grow its economy as fewer Texans receive training and educational opportunities at community colleges across the state.

HB1 would close four community colleges. Brazosport College, Frank Phillips College, Ranger College, and Odessa College would all suffer the complete removal of state support. This will effectively end these colleges as viable institutions in their communities. The outcome of this action would be the end of educational opportunities for the more than 12,000 students served by these colleges. The closing of these colleges will mean no dual credit courses for high school juniors and seniors, the closing of workforce programs to educate and train students for industry, and the end of arts and community outreach programs.

TACC Chair, Dr. Richard Rhodes said, “This budget makes it clear that there is no longer a state policy when it comes to community colleges. If a college grows and educates more students the state does not live up to its commitment by funding growth. However, if a college is perceived by state bureaucrats as somehow growing too slowly, the state will cut all of an institution’s funding.” He added, “Community colleges are the future of Texas but this budget proposal seriously reduces our ability to meet the needs of our local communities.”

Community colleges in Texas are drivers of the state’s economy accounting for $1.6 billion of the state’s economy each year. “With this level of formula funding cuts, the creation of a $283 million unfunded employee health insurance cost, and the closure of four colleges, Texas will suffer.” said Dr. Rey Garcia, TACC President. “Communities across Texas will face smaller colleges, offering fewer courses, with fewer support services, to fewer students” he continued.

Community colleges are the largest sector of higher education in Texas enrolling over 735,000 students this past fall. Over the past five years enrollment in community colleges has increased 34% or 187,000 students. Over 70% of all freshman in Texas are enrolled at a community college.

Community College's Fight Back

It might be a useful exercise to follow how community colleges' react to the Legislative Budget Board's proposed budget -- remember that this is not a final budget. The legislature will haggle over this all spring and probably over the summer. CHanges in the budget will tell alot about which groups in Texas are powerful and which are not.

Community college instructors are represented by a professional organization (which we have the option to join) called the the Texas Community College Teacher's Association, TCCTA. The organizations legislative affairs are overseen by a lobbysist named Beamon Floyd, who also represents the insurance industry in the state. I've heard him speak and he is an articulate defender of the lobbying profession and reminds audiences of its constitutional roots.

Here is the full text of TCCTA's response to the proposed budget:

Dear Colleague,

The preliminary budget for the next biennium was filed in the House of Representatives today (Wednesday), with severe cuts to the state's community colleges. The proposed budget includes a seven percent cut in formula funding, as well as a 25 percent funding cut in the "hold harmless" for small schools.

The budget also proposes the shuttering of four community colleges—Brazosport College, Frank Phillips College, Odessa College, and Ranger College. Rep. Jim Pitts, the chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, explained this morning (Wednesday) that these institutions were chosen on the basis of enrollment growth, compared to other two-year colleges around the state.

Another significant element of the proposed budget is an 82 percent decrease in funding for community college health benefits, which will push the burden for these services to the colleges, themselves.

In all, funding cuts for community colleges under this proposal total approximately $266 million.

During discussion in the House chamber, it was emphasized repeatedly that this budget is a preliminary document and will see significant changes before a final budget is adopted. Indeed, we have already observed bipartisan questioning of its provisions and "push back" from members of both parties.

It will be very important in the coming days that legislators hear from their constituents so they can understand the full impact these cuts would have on their communities. TCCTA members are urged to engage in this process, by talking with peers about these developments, and reading the TCCTA Blog to keep updated.

Members who contact their representatives should be polite but firm and clear about how this issue will affect them, their students, and their institutions ( see the TCCTA Guide to Political Participation). It is our belief that the proposed cuts, while having a serious impact on our ability to educate our students, will do very little to solve the budget crisis the state finds itself in. The imbalance between the serious consequences of the cuts, measured against any possible savings, should be pointed out to legislators.

In the several conversations we have had with legislators, it is clear that they perceive this only as a starting point, and that they are open to discussing other options. TCCTA is working diligently to learn more about the intentions of budget planners and make clear to them the concerns of our members.

We will continue to update members as information becomes available. Members are encouraged to watch the TCCTA blog closely, and attend the Legislative Update Session at the TCCTA convention in San Antonio next week, featuring the Association's lobbyist, Beaman Floyd.
To aid you in your communication, the TCCTA Legislative Program, Talking Points and Bill Tracking are available on our Web site, at http://www.tccta.org/legis/

Fred Newbury, 
TCCTA President
Richard Moore, 
Executive Director

Other organizations are certainly doing the same. I'll post links to their activities. This is a perfect demonstration of lobbying - the right to petition - in action. I'll try to make the most of it.

- TCCTA: Proposed Budget Cuts Detailed.

The Latest on Political Correctness in College

Professors, it seems, still tend to be liberal at most campuses, but conservatives exist, and do pretty well for themselves.

There is less political correctness in community colleges than other types of colleges.

Here are the relevant reads:
- Defining Political Correctness and Its Non-Impact.
- The Liberal (and Moderating) Professoriate.
- The Social and Political Views of American Professors.

Since the whole PC thing is so 80s, a refresher might be in order. At its simplest, it simply refers to individuals who see racial and gender and racial discrimination as a real phenomenon that has an impact on society. Things get controversial when prescriptions are offered which include affirmative action and, at it's extreme, suppression of ideas that are seen to further suppression.

Critics of the counter movement argue that conservatives served up political correctness as a whipping boy to stir up support for their movement.

Given its state, its surprising to see references to it today. But these studies tell us interesting things about the current state of ideology on campus.

The Awful Truth

If some of feel you are wasting your time in my classroom, you may have company. Here's the link, here's the full article:

George Leef: Higher education has been oversold

No one benefits from the overload

09:24 AM CDT on Sunday, October 28, 2007

In one of his New York Times columns earlier this year, David Brooks lamented that "despite all the incentives, 30 percent of kids drop out of high school, and the college graduation rate has been flat for a generation." Mr. Brooks, like many spokesmen for the higher-education establishment, worries that the United States is falling behind in the international race for brainpower.

That is why we keep hearing politicians talk about the need to stimulate a higher rate of college attendance and completion. We're in a global "knowledge economy," and whereas America used to be tops in the percentage of workers with college degrees, we have now fallen behind a number of other nations. At a big education conference I attended back in February, former North Carolina governor Jim Hunt called this situation "scary."

Sorry, scaremongers, but there is nothing to worry about. If anything, America now puts too many students into college, and we certainly don't need any new subsidies to get more there.

Why?

First, it isn't true that the economy is undergoing some dramatic shift to "knowledge work" that can only be performed by people who have college educations. When we hear that more and more jobs "require" a college degree, that isn't because most of them are so technically demanding that an intelligent high school graduate couldn't learn to do the work. Rather, it means more employers are using educational credentials as a screening mechanism. As James Engell and Anthony Dangerfield write in their book Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money, "The United States has become the most rigidly credentialized society in the world. A B.A. is required for jobs that by no stretch of imagination need two years of full-time training, let alone four."

Second, the needless pressure to get educational credentials draws a large number of academically weak and intellectually disengaged students into college. All they want is the piece of paper that gets them past the screening. Most schools have quietly lowered their academic standards so that such students will stay happy and remain enrolled.

Third, due to the overselling of higher education, we find substantial numbers of college graduates taking "high school" jobs like retail sales. It's not that there is anything wrong with well-educated clerks or truck drivers, but to a great extent college is no longer about providing a solid, rounded education. The courses that once were the pillars of the curriculum, such as history, literature, philosophy and fine arts, have been watered down and are usually optional. Sadly, college education is now generally sold as a stepping stone to good employment rather than as an intellectually broadening experience. Sometimes it manages to do both, but often it does neither.

Fourth, it's a mistake to assume that the traditional college setting is the best or only way for people to learn the things they need to know in order to become successful workers. On-the-job training, self-directed studies and courses taken with a particular end in mind (in such fields as accounting) usually lead to much more educational gain than do courses taken just because they fill degree requirements.

"But wait," I hear readers saying, "isn't it true that people with college degrees earn far more than people with only high school diplomas?" That is true, on average – an average composed to a large degree of very bright and ambitious people who would be successful with or without a college degree, and also of people who earned their degrees decades ago when the curriculum and academic standards were more rigorous.

It simply doesn't follow that every person we might lure into college today is going to enjoy a great boost in lifetime earnings just because he manages to stick it out through enough courses to graduate.

A perennial trope among politicians is that more education will make everyone better off. Having a more efficient educational system – one that taught the three R's well in eight years rather than poorly in 16 – would indeed be a benefit. Simply putting a higher percentage of our young people into college, however, makes just as much sense as spreading more fertilizer on a field that's already been overfertilized.

George Leef is the director of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and a blogger at National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com), where a version of this piece originally appeared.

Perry Backs Down

In our last episode, the governor vetoed $150 million in community college health care spending because he believed they were spending the money on employees that were not eligible for the funds (though the rumor mill has it that it was because the president's of the community colleges endorsed one of his opponents in the past election).

Now it seems that he has had a change of heart--possibly because everyone was upset at him--and wants to restore most, though not all, of the health care money, and add some more for this and that.

In case you thought your tuition was too low...

good news.

CC's and the Texas Legislature

According to the most recent update by the Texas Community College Teacher's Association, these are the top legislative issues for community colleges:

- Employee health insurance: specifically the amount that the state picks up. Budget hawks want it cut, employees don't
- The level of state funding: The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board sets a recommended level of funding, which the state never comes close to meeting. Not meeting the full level of funding means that property taxes and student tuition pay the rest, which some argue is appropriate, but others say prices student's out of college. The governor had recommended fully funding community colleges, but support still exists for funding them at a lower level.
- A trial project whereby three community colleges had been authorized to provide 4 year degree has been judged a success leading some to believe that these program could be expanded.
- Nebulous, in my mind at least, proposals for streamlining secondary, community colleges, and universities continue to be floated around. Many of these are couched in the "Closing the Gaps" initiative designed to lessen the achievement gap between students of different ethnic groups.
- The high costs of textbooks is being addressed in a variety of bills. Some attempt to limit the frequency of the new editions offered, and the tendency of textbooks to be bundled with additional superfluous material. A move seems underway to persuade instructors to use open source material, freely available on the web as text material.

Click here for a full list of the bills tracked by TCCTA.