Raising college education to new heights should be one of the primary goals to help raise our economy. Much of what we're hearing about Texas' higher education system is nothing more than a disruption from our focus and battle we must fight and win. Reforming higher education is not about being left or right or conservative or liberal. It is bout helping Texas students contribute to the future prosperity of our state.
Lawmakers, colleges and universities and business community must work together to help reform Texas higher education. We must drive the kind of reform that puts more Texas students on the path to higher education and help them earn a meaningful degree.
We do not immediately address the funding and structural reforms necessary to improve our graduation rates and graduate more Texans with advanced degrees or certificates. With this in mind, Texas repeatedly earns the top spot among ranking for business climate and job creation.
Just over 30 percent of Texans ages 25 to 34 hold an associate's degree or higher. By 2018, the Business Roundtable estimates that 63 percent of new replacement jobs in the United States will require at least a bachelor's degree. State lawmakers have reformed a committee to defend our universities against real perceived threats to higher education.
We must do a better job representing the people, especially taxpayers who fund public universities, students who attend them and job creators. If only about half of Texas students who enroll in a university today will eventually graduate, we cannot expect to stay competitive in business and job creation.
We should ensure accountability of our tax dollars by doing more to address completion rates. We should help raise higher education standards by hoping that both sides of the "seven distractions" debate will come to an agreement that will help benefit Texas higher education.
I agree with you that education is one of the most important things that we as a state should be focused on to maintain a good outlook in the business climate. While reforming college education is important I think it can start even a little bit earlier than that to help prepare us kids. I know from personal experience that friends attending other high schools in the area had to do almost nothing to be in their top quartile or top ten percentile while at our high school it was an uphill battle. By helping to prepare these kids for college earlier and not letting them just coast through high school like many teachers sometimes do these students would be much more prepared for college.
ReplyDeleteI think you cited some great and telling statistics. It's dangerous to think about what may happen to our state if soon 63% of jobs will require a degree and right now only 30% in the age group immediately following college have a degree. This makes me think Texas may lose out to some outsourcing and some business over time making business decline.
I'm also hoping the state can help to get control on rising tuition rates. Some of the hardest working people I know can't afford to go to college right out of school and therefore must start working a minimum wage job to start saving up. This of course isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think they could have so much more potential just if tuition rates were kept reasonable.
I am personally against the Seven Break Through Solutions simply because many professors I know and respect at A&M are strongly against them. I do agree overall with you though that higher education and education in general needs to be reformed in order for continued success and prosperity in the state of Texas. The statistics you posted really opened my eyes to what could happen over the next few years.