Presentation Title XX XX, 2014

We’re a pathway to success that connects people to higher education and the skills they need to be job-ready. We’re constantly innovating new ways of teaching and improving the ways students move along that pathway – from high school to college and from community colleges to four-year institutions. More than 50 percent of the people we surveyed have attended or have family members who have attended a community college. Why Community Colleges?

We focus on success for every student in Texas, no matter their age, abilities or aspirations. We prepare students for the workforce or transfer to a university, build professional skills, and support lifelong learning. No other institution does all that for so many Texans — hundreds of thousands all over the state, preparing for today and tomorrow. Nearly 80 percent of the people we surveyed agree that the community college experience improved the skills of themselves or their family members who attended. Why Community Colleges?

We’re an investment in success that delivers impressive returns for the state of Texas and for the communities we serve Community colleges play a critical role in keeping Texas competitive today and tomorrow. We are the most effective way of maintaining a skilled and educated workforce of job-ready Texans. Through 2020 – 65% of the jobs that will be created will require education beyond a high school diploma. – Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University Why Community Colleges?

Adoption of New Funding Mechanism including student success points that provide colleges with funding incentives to help students find and stay on their path to success Agreement for Employee Benefits Cost- sharing with the State helping to provide stability for college budgets New collaborations with K-12 using HB5 reforms as a framework for collaboration to expand and enhance early college experiences 83 RD SESSION LEGISLATIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The member colleges of TACC and CCATT, working with stakeholders and the THECB, have created a 5-point program of recommendations to best support students, colleges, communities, and Texas. 84 TH SESSION LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

1. Workforce and Skills Alignment The 5- Point Campaign 2. Measuring and Funding Success 3. College Readiness 4. Transfer and Articulation 5. Texans in Community Colleges

Policy Recommendations: Continue and enhance funding for the Skills Development Fund to allow community colleges to work with multiple employers to better serve students and meet statewide workforce needs Continue and enhance funding for the Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) program so community colleges can purchase equipment to provide state-of-the-art workforce training Policy Statement: Develop a process for community colleges in regions with demonstrated needs to offer bachelor’s degrees to students. WORKFORCE AND SKILLS ALIGNMENT Community colleges help sustain Texas prosperity with essential workforce development opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Texans, all over the state, preparing them for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

MEASURING AND FUNDING SUCCESS By helping students achieve their goals for learning, community colleges support student success throughout Texas — no matter where students are starting from or where their educational paths take them. Policy Recommendations: $2.011 billion in instructional funding for the biennium as recommended by THECB Continue with funding strategy implemented in : $50 million for core operations Student Success Points: 10% of remainder Contact Hours: 90% of remainder. Develop new Student Success Points system with THECB that allows institutions to compete against their own past performance (as outlined in Rider 23)

COLLEGE READINESS Community colleges provide an essential gateway to higher education for hundreds of thousands of Texans, collaborating with K-12 districts to provide innovative approaches and easy access all over the state. Policy Recommendations: Continue state funding for the New Mathways Project at the Dana Center at UT-Austin a statewide approach to reforming developmental education that accelerates student learning in advanced mathematics. Policy Statements: Fund both community colleges and school districts to support the new way forward outlined in HB5, with increased collaboration on early college experiences and improved alignment and pathways for student success.

TRANSFER AND ARTICULATION Community colleges need to be able to provide students with easy pathways to achieve their goals and measure their progress as they move into the workforce or transfer for further higher education. Policy Recommendations: Require the use of common course numbering by all public institutions of higher education in Texas. This change will enhance the ability of students and college advisors to have a clear understanding of course transfer. Currently, all community colleges in Texas utilize the common course numbering system, but not all public universities do the same

TEXANS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES Community colleges meet multiple needs for people and places all over Texas: higher education, job readiness, adult basic education, skills building, and lifelong learning and enrichment. Policy Recommendations: Provide sufficient funding for Adult Basic Education (ABE). Community colleges are mandated as open- enrollment institutions to provide ABE, but the state only funds services for about 100,000 of Texas’ more than 3 million eligible ABE students. Fund Texas Educational Opportunity Grants (TEOG) in line with any increase in Texas Grants funding. The ability to afford college opportunities is an issue that many students struggle to overcome. Less than ten percent of all grant aid to community college students comes from the state of Texas

WHAT CAN YOU DO? Sign up: Contact your elected officials:

Texas Association of Community Colleges Community College Association of Texas Trustees

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