‘Tis the season for legislative priority meetings, that happy, hopeful time of year when business, community, and nonprofit leaders spell out their wish lists like so many tots atop Santa’s knee. On Wednesday, the Texas Business and Education Coalition, a nonprofit that weighs in on educational policies from a pro-business perspective, held a briefing to pitch their two cents into the overflowing piggy bank of ideas. Hot on everyone’s mind was the need to grow a workforce with skills that extend beyond scanning and bagging as a prerequisite for building an economy where nonscanning, nonbagging jobs are plentiful.
According to Mack Quintana, TBEC’s business co-chair who presented the group’s recommendations, any such plan must address Texas’ transition to a Hispanic majority, and the need to make college a reality for students from families or neighborhoods where in the past few have attained higher education. So in addition to basic support for an equitable school finance system where the state picks up at least 50% of the tab, and everyone gets an education that is not just adequate but “excellent,” the group recommended more funding for literacy programs and English language acquisition, and placed special emphasis on fully funding the TEXAS Grant program for low-income college students. Because of 2003 budget cuts, the plan ran out of money this year, leaving more than 22,000 eligible students grantless. This, said Quintana, was unacceptable.
“We need to take every dollar we can find and put it into the TEXAS Grant program,” he said. “It’s a great investment in our future, and it’s one we need to continue.”
Responding to the recommendations, House Appropriations Committee Chair Jim Pitts agreed that TEXAS Grants were indeed a lovely idea. Unfortunately, he said, the base appropriations bill cut the program by another 5%.
“That’s just a starting point,” he said. “Hopefully we can build that up.”
Riiiiiiight. Other lumps of coal to follow as the session unfolds.
This article appears in January 21 • 2005.