Proportionate funding laws could cost students

Higher tuition and fees might be necessary if ACC does not receive more money from the state of Texas for employee health care.

Members of the board of trustees, the president of ACC, and the Office of External Affairs have all taken the time to call, send letters and talk face to face with central Texas state representatives about the issue of proportionality.

Under the current policy, institutions of higher education receive funding for employee health care that matches or is proportional to the state funds the institution receives. Community colleges across the state receive much of their funding from local sources, so they receive a smaller amount of state funds than larger four-year institutions. Therefore ACC and other community colleges do not receive the same amount of money for employee health care that larger four-year institutions do.

"Proportionality is being applied unfairly," Linda Young, special assistant to the president for External Affairs at ACC said. If proportionality is once more included in the budget bill, it could cost ACC $2.6 million in the coming two years. The money for employee health care has to come from somewhere said Young, and that could mean higher tuition or more fees in the future.

In a letter sent to local state representatives, the administration asks representatives to exclude proportionality from the budget bill and to support bills in the House (HB 2080) and Senate (SB 41) "which would resolve the proportionality issue."

"Those bills would say that this formula for figuring how we support benefits for faculty in higher education would not apply to community colleges which don't get the same amount of funding that the four-year (universities) do," Young said.

"For our students to be successful, we have to have top notch educators, and we do. We want to continue to attract and retain our faculty and our administrators and professional staff," Nan McRaven, Chairperson of the ACC Board of Trustees said. "For ACC to attract and retain faculty and staff, the college needs to be able to offer things like health care to its employees...the issue of proportionality affects employees, students and the wider ACC community."