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The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Committee on Affordability, Accountability, and Planning (CAAP) met on June 19, 2019, to take up a number of items. This report covers only discussions on the 60x30TX progress report and the CAAP’s overview of outcomes from the 86th Legislative Session.

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics the committee took up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the hearing but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

 

Agenda item 5a – Consideration of adopting the Commissioner’s recommendation to the Committee relating to approval of the 60x30TX progress report.

Julie Eklund, THECB Assistant Commissioner

  • Strategic plan is designed to be broad so various regions can think about the unique problems of their areas.
  • Student debt goal maintained.
  • Completions increased, but growth slowed among target populations.
  • High school direct enrollment rate has declined since the plan began in 2015.
  • 60×30 educated population goal increased by 1.2% from 2016-2017. Need 1.3% annually to reach goal of 60% by 2030.
    • Increase was due to higher completion rates within the state and migration of educated individuals into the state.
  • Completion increased by 2.2% from 2017-2018. This is an improvement, but growth needs to be faster to achieve goals.
    • As plan initiatives start to have an impact the growth rate of completions should increase.
  • Demographic shifts based on increased migration from Asia, decreased birth rates among American born Hispanics, etc. will have an impact on the goals. Hispanic populations are not growing as quickly as expected, meaning goals may have to be adjusted.
  • Percentage of high school graduates enrolling in directly in higher education has stayed flat since the plan began.
  • 41% of institutions reported they have implemented a process of identifying marketable skills for their programs.
  • Have stayed close to the student debt-to-first year wage ratio has stayed near the 60% target.
  • Percentage of graduates with debt declined for the third year in a row.

Questions from the Board

  • Welcome Wilson, Vice Chair – Is there any single item that is causing the direct enrollment rate to not increase?
    • Eklund – There are a number of things that could factor in. There may be students who can get jobs right out of high school and do not understand the value of higher education.
    • Wilson – You think that because the economy is doing better, kids can get a decent paying job out of high school and are not going to college?
    • Eklund – Yes during the recession community college enrollment was higher.
    • David Gardner, Deputy Commissioner/Chief Academic Officer– Larger concern is there has been a lot of question on the value of higher education, return on investment, debt, etc.. Would be helpfully to do an analysis of the decision and thought process of students.
    • Raymund Paredes, Commissioner of Higher Education – Need to develop a plan with TEA to address this issue. Need to get more kids to go to college. Will “call Morath today” and talk about coming up with a specific plan for improving direct enrollment.
    • Wilson – This is definitely a serious problem.
    • Paredes – This is a problem and we need to address that issue, because over time it will be a difference of hundreds of thousands of educated people.
    • Gardner – There has been a similar dip in other states in college enrollment, so it could be a result of wider trends. It is a problem, direct enrollment is important. People can come back to college when they are older, but older students often have greater economic challenges than directly enrolled students.
    • Paredes – One solution might be to ramp up Grad Texas to help students who have started college but have not finished.
    • Gardner – Got some funding from the legislature to help with Grad Texas and may be able to get additional funds from another foundation.
    • Paredes – Was recently in New York and may be able to get some funding from a couple foundations.
    • Wilson – How much funding is that?
    • Paredes – From $300k-$500k from those two foundations, do not want to name them before it is a sure thing.
    • Eklund – Will have data about who is leaving the state for higher education in the future.
    • Gardner – Need to consider if we need a public awareness campaign to make people aware of how they can pay for college.
  • Fred Farias – How retainable is the information about marketable skills for the stakeholders?
    • Eklund – Think THECB does a good job communicating about marketable skills with the institutions, some institutions have already completed the process.
    • Gardner – “Complete the process” means that they continue to keep skills up to date, so it is an ongoing process.
  • Motion to adopt the Commissioner’s recommendation to the Committee relating to approval of the 60x30TX progress report.
    • Motion passed.

Item 5d – Overview of Outcomes of the 86th Texas Legislative Session.

John Wyatt, THECB External Relation Director

  • Item is for information only.
  • 101 out of 522 bills analyzed by the agency were passed.
  • Higher education saw a 7.4% ($904m) increase in GR funding.
  • TCHEB received a 17% ($237m) increase in its budget.
    • $60m increase for graduate medical education expansion.
    • $80m increase for TEXAS Grants.
    • A number of funding items for less than $1m were also granted.
  • Contingency riders for SB 11, SB 16, and HB 2261 were all passed.
    • SB 11 contingency will allocate $99m to Texas Child Mental Health Consortium. THECB will be a “pass through” for these funds, directed by the Consortium.
    • SB 16 contingent allocates $4.2m for Peace Officer Loan Repayment Program,
    • HB 2261 appropriates $4.9m to Physician Education Loan Repayment Program.
  • $915m of GR increase in formula funding over FY18-19 levels.
  • SB 25 (West/Turner) makes several changes to make student and course transfer more efficient.
  • HB 3808 (Walle/Powell) Creates the Texas WORKS Paid Internship Program.
  • SB 1504 requires institutions to use funds from the B-on-Time account to fund programs to improve graduation rates among at-risk students.
  • SB 1474 amends certain statutes regarding the Private Activity Bonds that fund the Hinson-Hazelwood Student loan Program.
  • SB 25 and SB 1324 requires dual credit students to file a degree plan once they complete 15 credit hours. University students will be required to file a plan at 30 credit hours.
  • Wilson – Of THECB’s recommendations that did not make it, are there any that we should be focusing on next session?
    • Wyatt – There is a problem with Texas Grant TEOG with any modifications that can be made to those programs. Bill sponsors ultimately withdrew those bills because there would have been an amendment to exclude undocumented students that would have been successful. The sponsors “did not want to have a fight” about that.
  • Stuart Stedman – What courses are not offered in Texas that are offered outside that would qualify for in-state tuition?
    • Wyatt – It is for programs that are offered out of state but not in Texas, it is a very small number of programs.
  • Stedman – For the paid internship program, what is THECB’s role in promoting that?
    • Wyatt – Legislation requires THECB to advertise to employers about the opportunity and place certain requirements on the employer.
    • Stedman – What are of the CB would do that?
    • Wyatt – Jerel Booker and CRS.
  • Stedman – Expand on the issue of undergraduate success being used for doctoral programs? Why those measures did not pass?
    • Wyatt – Institutions made the argument that undergraduate success was not relevant for doctoral programs, and it was resistance from institutions that led to those measure not passing.
    • Paredes – It is “nonsense” that the success of undergraduate students does not affect graduate programs. Devoting excess resources to graduate programs takes resources away from undergraduate students. Undergraduate education should be the first priority.
  • Donna Williams – Will the Open Educational Exchange be stored in one repository or will it be web/cloud based?
    • Wyatt – It will be stored at one single repository that any educational institution could make use of.
  • Williams – How do Texas Military Scholarships impact Hazelwood?
    • Not directly related. Hazelwood is for veterans, Texas Military Scholarships is for students going into ROTC, so those populations have essentially no overlap.