New funding method would be raising the bar too high

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) is endorsing a new method of funding public universities and community colleges that would tie a percentage of funding to student success instead of the current method of basing funding solely on enrollment. This is a way to mask further cuts to higher education by not calling them cuts.

Schools need more funding not less. Taking funding away from under-performing schools only lessens the resources those colleges or universities have to pay for programs to help students succeed. The solution should be better funded education at all levels.

Those in favor of this change believe that it will serve as an incentive for schools to improve student success rates. Besides the idea of "student success" being a vague and hard to track concept, taking away funding from community colleges is more punitive than it is motivating.

Obviously cuts are going to have to be made this year. The state has an estimated 25 billion dollar deficit, but is the one area that shouldn't be on the chopping block.

In fact, if legislators really want to increase college success rates, they shoul double the funding for grade schools, make sure that no one is graduating from our high schools without knowing basic math and writing skills. Moreover, make sure that everyone is graduating from our high schools.

Budget cuts and more bad ideas are not something the already fragile Texas education system can survive right now.

An idea the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is not likely to support is Rep. Fred Brown recently proposed elimination of the board in order to save money, and help streamline the process of moving from high school to college. Brown's proposal would combine k-12 and college education oversight under one organization. This is an idiodic idea.

However t here should be some changes made to the way education is managed in Texas, but eliminating the THECB isn't one of them. The Higher Education Coordinating Board should be endorsing ideas that better fund our state's colleges and lead to more access to education, not less.