Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Raymund A. Paredes, Ph.D., Texas Commissioner of Higher Education

AUSTIN - Texas Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes told a U.S. House panel that funding for higher education is in crisis.

U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, who chairs the higher education, lifelong learning, and competitiveness subcommittee, agreed and said the states “must not be let off the hook.”

And both Paredes and Hinojosa agreed with U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, that community colleges could play an even greater role preparing students for the global economy and thereby help the country become more competitive.

“We have a crisis in this country in terms of funding for public higher education,” Paredes said, as he began his testimony. He pointed out that 30 years ago, 75 to 80 percent of funding for higher education came from the states. Today, 20 percent or less of a higher education institution’s operating budget comes from the state, Paredes said.

Because states are contributing less, Paredes explained, colleges and universities were seeking more money from the federal government and students themselves. He said that with the exception of health care, no sector’s costs had gone up more sharply that higher education.

“Higher education is becoming less accessible to the poorest students and is becoming a very significant financial burden to middle class students,” Paredes said.

Historically, Texas has had a low cost, low support, structure in higher education, Paredes told the panel. However costs were now rising and the support was hardly moving, he said. He pointed out that 80 percent of student financial aid in Texas comes from federal sources, which is much higher than the national average.

Paredes applauded the interest Hinojosa and Grijalva were showing in community colleges. “In Texas, it is projected that 70 to 80 percent of low-income, first generation, students who go on to higher education will begin in community colleges,” he said.

In addition to more resources given to community colleges, Paredes said emphasis was needed on pre-K thru 16th grade integration.

“We need to do everything we can at the state and federal level to recognize that we have one academic pipeline,” Paredes said. “In higher education, we cannot do our job effectively if the K-12 sector doesn’t send us well prepared students. On the other hand, the K-12 sector can’t do its job well if we don’t send them good teachers, well prepared teachers.”

Paredes also agreed with Hinojosa that more money had to be put into the Pell Grant program. He said 30 years ago, Pell Grants provided around 90 percent of tuition and book costs for students. Now, the average was under 40 percent.

“The gap has been filled by loans and substantial sacrifices on the part of families, from the students that are taking longer to graduate because they are working more and taking fewer courses,” Paredes said.

As a result, Paredes said, students were at crisis stage. “We now have a large number of students all over the country, certainly in Texas, whose career decisions are to a large degree influenced by the debt they have when they graduate college,” Paredes said. “Minority students are delaying or suspending plans to go to graduate schools because they do not want to incur more debt.”

Hinojosa said that if he had his way the federal government would contribute at least 15 percent of a local education agency’s budget, rather than the current seven or eight percent. The business community should also do more, Hinojosa said, given that it wants a highly trained work force. However, he said states “must not be let off the hook.”

Grijalva has a community college system in his Phoenix, Arizona, district that Hinojosa can only dream about having in the Rio Grande Valley. The Maricopa Community College District comprises ten colleges, two skill centers and numerous education centers. Each college is individually accredited yet part of a larger system.

“It is amazing what they have done at Maricopa in such short period of 20 years,” Hinojosa told the Guardian. The District is one of the largest higher education systems in the world.

“We do not pay enough attention to community colleges and the great role that they are playing in educating our workforce and people that go on to four-year institutions,” Grijalva said. “It reinforced the view that we have to make sure that pipeline that is feeding these institutions is working.”

Grijalva said he found it “really ironic” that the U.S. was making a concerted effort to try to structure its visa program to ensure that more engineers, scientists, technologists, and health providers were brought into the country. “We wouldn’t be finding ourselves with that shortage if we had made the kind of investments you speak of,” Grijalva told Paredes.

Hinojosa organized the hearing, held at Austin Community College, to investigate the increasing need for Title III and Title V grants authorized under the Higher Education Act. The grants provide funds for Minority-Serving Institutions, which traditionally have limited resources and serve large numbers of low-income and minority students.

“Currently close to half of our public school children are racial or ethnic minorities – one in five is Hispanic,” Hinojosa said. “It is clear that Minority-Serving Institutions will only grow in importance and we must provide them the necessary resources so that they can properly educate our next generation of college graduates.” 

The hearing marked the fifth Hinojosa’s subcommittee has held in preparation for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which happens every six years.

In his opening remarks, Hinojosa said that Hispanic Serving Institutions, he would continue to focus on enacting the provisions of H.R. 451, the Next Generation Hispanic-Serving Institutions Act, to create a graduate program at Hispanic–Serving Institutions. 

“This has been a long-standing priority for me and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. We also stand in solidarity with our colleagues to support efforts to strengthen all of the developing institutions programs,” Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa said it did not help that the Bush Administration had given $1.5 trillion dollars in tax cuts over the next ten years and was spending $8 billion a month on the war in Iraq. “It is easy to understand why we cannot increase the investment in public education,” he told the Guardian.

Stephen B. Kinslow, president and CEO of Austin Community College, said it was “gratifying” to see a growing awareness that community colleges are the gateway for over half of the students that enter higher education.

“The degree to which public policy gets aligned around strong support for community colleges will also determine how much better we do, particularly in Texas and meeting those overarching goals of Closing the Gaps,” Kinslow told the Guardian.