Austin, TX
Texas HB 8 funding is here. Here’s what it means for Austin Community College, others.
Texas community colleges are getting millions in additional money as the state rolls out its new model for financing the higher education institutions.
Under House Bill 8, which was signed into law in June, the state’s 50 community college districts will move to merit-based funding — shifting away from the previous enrollment metrics model — and receive state money based on how many degrees, certificates, transfers and “credentials of value” they award.
After a dizzying summer of preparing for the change and the first state payments deposited in the fall, Texas is in the program’s implementation stage, but it’s “already driving these new dollars to community colleges,” Harrison Keller, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s commissioner, told the American-Statesman.
“The governor asked me how it’s going, and this is sort of the year of rulemaking … each (board meeting) will have a lot of rules we will have to adopt,” he said.
The state budget is allocating $683 million in additional money to community colleges under the new funding model. Under HB 8, Austin Community College is receiving an additional $6.8 million, almost doubling its net revenue, according to an announcement during the college’s December board meeting.
In total, community colleges were awarded 23.3% more in formula funding for fiscal 2024-25 compared with the previous biennium, for a total of $2.3 billion, according to the coordinating board’s website.
How is HB 8 affecting Texas?
Keller said the Higher Education Coordinating Board was able to fast-track the first funding allocation to community colleges because of the strong relationship and trust between the Legislature and higher education leaders.
Emergency rules enabled the board to allocate the funding Sept. 1. This month, the board plans to adopt its final rules for fiscal 2024. In April, it plans to adopt the final rules for fiscal 2025.
Ray Martinez, the president and CEO of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, said the coordinating board will distribute the funding in three payments, the first of which was sent in mid-October.
“There’s been a lot of work and still more to come,” he said.
The Legislature drafted and adopted the bill after the Texas Commission on Community College Finance approved recommendations for success-based funding. The bill seeks to address workforce and community needs stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the important role community colleges play in Texas.
“It’s a game changer, not just for bottom line revenue that will come to our colleges, which is sorely needed, but it is a game changer again because it will really allow us to focus on what we’re really there for and that is to serve the students that grow in our colleges,” Martinez said.
HB 8 is also designed to better support smaller and rural-serving community colleges. In addition to performance-tier funding, colleges can also receive additional base-tier funding if revenue from tuition, fees and local taxes do not meet their basic instruction and operations costs. For smaller, rural colleges that don’t make as much revenue from property taxes, this bill is a “welcome change,” Martinez said.
Additionally, colleges are also being offered incentives to focus on workforce needs and equity. The bill allocates more money to schools that graduate students with degrees in high-demand fields and when they enroll students who are 25 or older or who are economically or academically disadvantaged, as defined by the coordinating board. Colleges also are rewarded for the number of high school students who complete 15 semester credits of dual-enrollment courses.
Austin Community College
At ACC, the additional money will be invested to support students to graduation and funnel more money into high-need and high-success programs, officials said.
Jenna Cullinane Hege, ACC’s vice chancellor of institutional research and analytics, serves on the advisory committee for HB 8. Cullinane Hege has been involved in hosting “Roadshow” sessions at ACC to educate the community about the new funding model. She said the bill is a “major shift” in funding, but that the outcomes-focus model already reflects ACC’s mission.
“People are excited about the opportunity,” she said. “When we have $6.8 extra million, that allows us to be creative and thoughtful and strategic to invest in the things that are going to be most helpful for our students, most helpful for our community, most helpful for the state.”
Neil Vickers, ACC’s executive vice chancellor of finance and administration, said ACC is in brainstorming mode right now, collecting data to find successful programs for students that are scalable, and prioritize those in the budget.
“I think you’ll see more innovation from community colleges that are reaching out there and trying to find new ways to move these needles, knowing that there’s dollars available if you’re successful doing that,” he said. “And that’s definitely one of the things that ACC will be doing.”
Cullinane Hege said ACC has been strong in transferring students, which is also a fundable outcome under HB 8, but also has successful outcomes in the health sciences and advanced manufacturing areas.
HB 8 also reinforces work that ACC is already doing to support students. In October, ACC opened three centers to help connect students to more resources such as food, housing, child care and community, with the goal of helping them stay and finish in school.
In Vickers’ more than two decades at ACC, this is the most positive energy he has seen around state appropriations, he said. The bill signals to him that the state sees the value of community colleges in addressing state workforce needs, and he said that ACC will live up to the task.
“Even just that messaging by itself is really important for everybody, including community colleges. We need to hear that, too, from time to time that we’re valued,” he said. “It’s all being viewed as opportunities and positive challenges for us to do better, and to make sure that we’re serving our communities.”
AUSTIN, Texas – A 20-year-old was arrested and charged with murder for a deadly shooting at the Cambria Hotel in downtown Austin, police said.
What we know:
Police said on Monday, Jan. 5, around 6:55 a.m., officers responded to a report of a gunshot at the Cambria Hotel at 68 East Avenue #824. The caller said a person had been shot.
When officers arrived, they found a man with injuries. He later died at the scene. He was identified as Luke Bradburn.
The investigation revealed that Bradburn drove and crashed a car that belonged to 20-year-old Maximillian Salinas. After the crash, Bradburn and the other people in the car left and went to the Cambria Hotel.
Salinas went to the hotel and shot Bradburn.
On Jan. 6, Salinas was arrested and charged with murder.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Austin Police at 512-974-TIPS. You may submit your tip anonymously through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program by visiting austincrimestoppers.org or calling 512-472-8477.
The Source: Information from the Austin Police Department
Chants of “shame” and “ICE out of Texas” rang through the street as Austin-area activists joined thousands across the nation in protesting the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
The protest was held in front of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security building in Pflugerville.
Good, 37, was shot in her SUV while attempting to drive away from several ICE officers who ordered her to exit her vehicle.
Scarleth Lopez with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the organization that led the protest, said the videos of the shooting in Minneapolis were “sickening.”
“Trump has lied and and said that Renee was a terrorist. She was a mother. She was an innocent bystander,” Lopez said. “We must organize to stop these people from kidnapping and murdering.”
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Elizabeth Bope, a retired Pflugerville ISD teacher, said the claims from federal and state lawmakers that Good was attempting to strike the ICE agent with her vehicle inspired her to attend the protest.
Such claims were posted online by Vice President J.D. Vance and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Attorney General Ken Paxton reposted a statement from DHS on X, formerly known as Twitter, that said the ICE agent “relied on his training and saved his own life.”
“It’s beyond really any words that they killed this woman for no reason, but also that they’re lying about it,” Bope said. “I’m not even a radical left person, I’m just a regular old Democrat.”
Other key Texas leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have not commented on the shooting.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Doug Tickner, who said he works for a home building company in Austin, said he felt it was important to show up in person for Good.
“I don’t really think of Minneapolis as being that far from here, and it’s not like what happened in Minneapolis was some sort of one off unique event,” Tickner said. “This is part of a pattern, and I feel folks better wake up and realize that this is becoming more and more serious.”
The news that federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon, broke hours before the protest.
The gathering in Pflugerville is among the first of four anti-ICE demonstrations planned across the Austin area over the next few days.
Earlier on Thursday, protesters gathered at the intersection of 45th Street and Lamar Boulevard during rush hour. A protest on Friday will be held at the Capitol and another will be held Saturday at City Hall.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
State and federal leaders are now sparring over who should conduct an investigation into the Minneapolis shooting, according to NPR.
Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which was originally asked to conduct a joint investigation with the FBI, said in a statement it was later told the investigation would be led solely by federal authorities.
AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas agency is concerned that the flesh-eating New World screwworm could be getting closer to Texas without commercial livestock movement.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is sounding the alarm again for livestock owners to remain vigilant in watching for signs of the parasite in their animals.
Screwworm sighting near Texas
The latest:
Miller said in a Thursday release that a screwworm had been detected in a cow in González, Tamaulipas, a little more than 200 miles from the southern Texas border.
According to the commissioner, the cow had no reported history of movement outside Tamaulipas, and is the third active case reported there.
Officials in Mexico have not reported a known population of the worm in Tamaulipas. They’re working with U.S. authorities to investigate further into the new case.
What they’re saying:
“The screwworm now may be moving closer on its own, with no apparent link to commercial animal movement,” Commissioner Miller said. “Texas producers must act now—stay informed, stay vigilant, and prepare immediately. We cannot drop our guard for even a moment.”
Inspect livestock for screwworm
What you can do:
Miller urged immediate action from ranchers along the Texas border.
“Inspect your animals daily,” Miller said. “Check every open wound. If anything looks suspicious, report it right away. Better a false alarm than a delayed response—early detection and rapid reporting are our strongest defenses against this devastating pest.”
U.S. plan to fight screwworm in Texas
Big picture view:
The threat to cattle has been deemed so potentially devastating to the U.S. food supply that the federal government is committing $850 million to fight it.
Most of that money will be spent on building a sterile male fly production facility near the border.
The facility will produce 300 million sterile male flies a week to be dropped into target areas where the screwworm is now. Those male flies help to reduce the population size through mating without reproducing.
A much smaller portion of the funding will be used for screwworm detection technology.
In addition, the federal government has already spent $21 million on a sterile fly production facility in Mexico.
What are New World screwworms?
Dig deeper:
The insect gets its name because it’s only found in the Americas.
It lays its eggs in the open wounds of animals, and its larvae become parasites, threatening livestock, domestic animals, and even people.
The screwworm was mostly eradicated in Texas and the rest of the United States in the 60s. But now, it’s moving north up from Panama and has a known presence a little over 300 miles south of the Texas-Mexico border.
The Source: Information in this article comes from Sid Miller.
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