Texas one day could be a national leader in access to colleges and universities, but for the next few years, it's simply aiming for mediocrity, the state's higher education commissioner said during a recent visit to College Station.
"All we're trying to do by the year 2015 is to get to parity with college-going rates in the 10 largest states. That's all," Raymund Paredes told the A&M System Board of Regents during the body's regularly scheduled meeting Friday. "Our aspiration in this initial effort is to become average."
Paredes was in town to provide an update about the state's Closing the Gaps by 2015, a plan created in 2000 to get Texas higher education up to par in four key areas: participation, success, quality and research dollars.
He also presented legislative goals, including supporting an idea in a defeated bill last session authored by state Sen. Steve Ogden, a Republican businessman from Bryan, that would make Texas Grant funding more merit based.
When the Closing the Gaps plan began, officials set the goal of increasing enrollment in public and independent higher education by 630,000 students to 1.65 million. As of fall 2009, nine years in, roughly 400,000 more enrolled than in 2000, Paredes said.
"The largest enrollment increase by far is occurring in community colleges," Paredes said. "Students are recognizing that perhaps the most cost-efficient way to advance to a baccalaureate degree is to take two years of community college work, then transfer to a university."
Paredes, who was appointed to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in 2004 by Gov. Rick Perry, said the agency is recommending to the Legislature ideas that would further the plan.
He said the state should fund institutions not based on how many students are enrolled on the 12th day of the semester, the current method, but at the end of the semester, to "start moving universities towards achieving a proper balance between access and success."
And Texas Grant money, which now is doled out based on need, should shift to a model more based on merit in addition to need. Students who satisfy two of the following four criteria, Paredes said, double their chances of graduating: graduate in the top third of their high school class, earn a 3.0 GPA or higher, have higher college readiness scores and participate in advanced courses.
"We're not going to lower funding to any institution," Parades said. "We're simply saying to the institutions, 'Fund the students who work hard and achieved high levels first.'"
Ogden also supports the new effort. He said his bill was defeated last year because of legislators worried about colleges and universities in their district losing funding. A&M doesn't have that problem, he said.
"A&M has such high admissions standards," Ogden said Saturday. "If a student's been admitted, then the merit component's already there."
A&M System Board Chairman Morris Foster said during the meeting that he supported the coordinating board's goals.
"We pledge to you that we'll be there to help and carry our share of the load if not more than our share of the load" he told Paredes.
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