Presentation to the North Texas Community College Consortium

By Bob Brown

Vice President for Business & Administration

Texas A&M University-Commerce

Build it…

Better

Faster

Cheaper

A car?

A Wii?

A television?

No – A successful college student

Demand for enrollment and other services to continue to increase

Scarce Resources

Economic possibilities

Double dip recession

Slow recovery

Extended deflation

Reasons to be cautious:

1. Stocks are about 20 times cyclically adjusted earning versus the historical average of 16 times.

Reasons to be cautious:2. Consumer prices have fallen for

three months in a row. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that last quarter, workers earned .7% less in real terms per hour than they did a year ago.

Reasons to be cautious:3. According to the Federal

Reserve, total U.S. debt – even excluding the financial sector –is nearly twice what it was 10 years ago: $35 trillion compared to $18 trillion.

Reasons to be cautious:4. The official unemployment rate

is 9.5%, however, only 61% of the adult population, age 20 and over, has any kind of job. That’s the lowest since the early 1980’s. Among men today, only 66.9% have jobs.

Reasons to be cautious:5. Foreclosures rose again last

month. Banks took over another 93,000 homes in July which is an increase of 9% since June.

Economic Realities

State budget as much as $18 billion short in the next biennium

Growth in all areas of education

Good people with impossible jobs

“You cannot shrink your way to Greatness.”

Dr. Mike McKinney

ChancellorTexas A&M University System

Facts are the enemy of truth

Don Quixote

… means a changing social contract

Accountability

Outcomes – Agreed on and demonstrated

Cooperation and Collaboration

“Historic cooperation between universities and community colleges.”

Mike McKinneyChancellor

Texas A&M University System

K-20 as a unified system

Cooperation Examples

Early and middle college high schools

Charter schools

Multi-institution teaching sites

Dual credit

On campus

On school campus

Online

Cooperation

Episodic, not systemic

New Ways?Aid

Administrative services

Course ware

Assist to Reinvent the Business Model…

Technology For efficiency

For collaboration

Multiplying the modalities for learning

Social MediaPersonal leaning environments

Everyone is a reporter

Student development more important than ever.

Developmental Education is under attack…

Study: Texans paying twice for education

Dallas Business Journal

The state of Texas is spending more than $88 million a year to provide community college students remedial education, according to calculations released Tuesday. Remedial education focuses on giving community college students the skills and knowledge that they should have obtained in high school.

In addition, the state is losing nearly $194 million in wages because remedial reading students are more likely to drop out of college without a degree, reducing their earning potential, according to a brief released by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Developmental Education as “rework”

Developmental Education as preparation

Teacher education in the spotlight

Research on effective schools

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, education.vic.gov.au

Higher education employees impacted

Draft Report of the Advisory Committee on Higher Education Cost

Efficiencies to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

RecommendationsThe funding formulas for 2-year and 4-year institutions should be modified in such a way that fund student success.

RecommendationsContinue to fund the Performance Incentive

Funding initiative for 4-year institutions to produce more graduates and continue to fund programs designed to increase levels of externally-generated research funds.

RecommendationsAllocate a portion of formula funding to community colleges on the basis of results achieved – in this case, not only an increase in program completion, but completions of intermediate milestones, known as Momentum Points, proved to lead to ultimate completion.

Long term recommendationThe coordinating board should undertake an in-depth review of the state’s higher edfinance mechanisms and recommend changes necessary to align these policies with the state’s big goals and the goal of improved productivity and efficiency. Progress on reforming the finance policy need not wait for this review.

Pathways for student success

A statewide developmental education program that is tailored to address specific deficiencies and remove those deficiencies within one year or less.

Opportunities for accelerationIncentives should be developed to encourage both students and institutions to participate in advanced placement, dual credit, competency based evaluations, and other test-out options (needs to be incorporated in funding model).

Pathways for student successAn efficient transfer system that maximizes students’ mobility within the Texas public higher education system while encouraging institutional distinctiveness.

Long-term actionMake greater use of community colleges as producers of degrees and certificates and as partners with the universities to reduce costs and increase success in lower division course completion.

The construction boom may be over.

The temptation of cheap money

Fix and repurpose current structures

Textbook costs

Electronic

Open Marketplace