EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – House Bill 8 became law with the start of 2024, marking an historical departure from how Texas has been funding its community colleges for decades.
HB 8 was signed into law last June by Gov. Greg Abbott, providing $683 million for community colleges across the state.
Prior to this year, the 50 community colleges across Texas would earn state funding based on enrollment. El Paso Community College President William Serrata said this method of funding was “static” and would force the colleges to divide however much funding the Texas Legislature provided, among all the institutions. Serrata added that HB 8 shifts the funding formula to a “dynamic” one.
“Now what the new formula does it’s based on your performance. If you graduate more students, if you provide more students with a credential, then you’ll receive additional funding. So it really is a competition with yourself trying to get better, trying to do better for your community, offer more programs that allow students to get into a living wage job and be productive members of our community,” Serrata said.
With the new law, Texas will also reward community colleges for successfully transferring students to four year universities, and for enrolling students in college courses in high school.
Community colleges receive their funding from three areas: state funding, local property taxes, and tuition and fees.
Serrata and El Paso businessman Woody Hunt were instrumental in getting the legislation to pass in Austin.
Hunt was appointed by Abbott to chair the Community College Finance Commission, tasked with studying community college finance and draft recommendations for the Texas Legislature.
Serrata served as the chair of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, representing all 50 of them, and was responsible for explaining to Texas Legislators what the colleges’ goals were.
EPCC is set to receive $7.1 million dollars in additional funds in the current biennium with the new law.
“The benefit and part of the reason that 49 of the 50 colleges saw increases in funding is because we’ve really been focused on ensuring that students get to the finish line. And so I’ll give you an example. In 2001, the 50 community colleges produced about 37,000 degrees. In 2010, that more than doubled. In 2020 we were looking at about a little over 125,000 degrees and certificates,” Serrata said.
With this new formula providing a promising future for community colleges, EPCC is already looking to capitalize on the additional funding.
“So we’re already implementing new programs. The Board of Trustees last month approved six new additional programs, including the Occupational Therapy Assistant Program. These are high demand, high skilled programs that their salaries are significantly higher than traditional programs as well,” Serrata said.
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