Our Goal for the 88th Texas Legislative Session:
Community college finance reform, including strategic and meaningful new investment, that will address workforce skills gaps, increase the wage-earning potential of Texans, and grow the state's GDP.
Our 2023 Policy Priorities for Community College Finance Reform:
1. Improve outcomes-based funding that incentivizes student success in the workforce. Ensure the state’s outcomes-based funding is (1) sufficiently large enough to drive improved results and (2) aligned with outcomes that meet workforce needs and the state’s Building a Talent Strong Texas goals.
2. Ensure all community colleges have the necessary funding to maintain instruction and operations so students in all regions of Texas can participate in growing their regional economies.
3. Increase financial aid to ensure student affordability so that more students have the opportunity to obtain postsecondary credentials by eliminating barriers of cost and accessibility.
4. Strengthen partnerships between education institutions and industry. Strengthen and incentivize community college-employer partnerships delivering credentials of value to meet regional and state workforce needs. Incentivize via outcomes funding regional collaboratives that include high schools, higher education, and workforce to prioritize postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and completion aligned with regional workforce demand.
5. Further educational equity. Invest in resources to support traditionally underserved Texans, including those who are economically disadvantaged, educationally disadvantaged and/or adult learners.
6. Enhance collaboration and cost-sharing among community colleges. Allocate additional resources to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to seed new programs, build internal capacity, and leverage its authority to facilitate and incentivize a more efficient network of community colleges in order to collectively meet state workforce goals.