A few months ago, I wrote about Texas House Bill 8, which radically altered the funding mechanism for Texas community colleges. HB8 is now in full effect, and community colleges have a short window to make magic happen.
Like many other community college funding models, Texas pays for its two-year schools through a mix of property taxes, state grants, and student tuition and fees. Prior to HB8, Texas based its community college funding model on enrollment. Now, the state will pay its portion of community college revenue based on outcomes. Did the student graduate from the community college or transfer to a university? Does the student make more with his/her two-year degree than a worker with a high school diploma makes? Does the student have learning challenges?
Those are the three primary factors in the Texas community college funding formula these days, and no one is quite sure how this is all going to work. The biggest risk, of course, is that community colleges in relatively high-populated areas won’t have enough of the requisite factors to avoid losing funding. The state already makes accommodations for rural community colleges that don’t have adequate local tax support to pay their bills.
As part of the legislation, Texas lawmakers tucked extra funding into the bill for the first two years of the program. Once that money is gone, Texas community colleges will be expected to sink or swim, so to speak.
Lawmakers talk about the funding model as though the community colleges will succeed. Aside from defunding, there’s no other option written into HB8. But those who have spent time around community colleges know that the positive outcomes the state wants to see don’t always happen.
Reality sets in at Texas community colleges
The overall graduation rate from Texas community colleges is about 41%. This figure hasn’t shown much movement in the past few years, but that’s about to change. Retention rates among those students who are enrolled in college courses for the first time is 31%. That’s 15% lower than it was before the pandemic. The graduation rate among college first-timers is a scant 18%.
For the community colleges, there is not much room for error. The Texas Legislature is not only a part-time body, but it also meets once every other year. That’s part of the reason for providing extra funding in the current year and next year. And when the legislators return, they expect to see progress.
Currently, community colleges are scrambling to add services that could make it theoretically easier for students to enroll or remain enrolled. These include childcare, social services, and other perceived barriers to graduation.
The new funding model may also lead to unintended consequences, like competition for students among the state’s community colleges. In this scenario, the funding model would not reward student outcomes – as intended. Instead, it would reward those schools that master the art of performance based funding.
Watch Texas closely. Without the benefit of knowing any outcomes, some states will follow blindly in Texas’s footsteps. There are so many variables that control student success – many of which the community college has no control over. However, the Texas State Legislature has taken steps to hold its community colleges accountable for all of them.
Photo Credit: Bev Currie, via Flickr
