Texas Governor, Rick Perry, has expressed his proposal to make higher education more affordable, increase enrollment to compete with other populous states, and create incentives for education institutions to develop faster graduation rates. I believe he has upstanding ideas that may influence more students to pursue higher education.
The number of high school students taking the SAT exam has climbed significantly over the past five years. More specifically these large increases are being seen in minority groups. Statistics are showing increases of 65% in Hispanic students, 42% in African American students, and 29% in Asian students.
This significant increase in desire for higher education in Texas is great news and quite a change since 2000 when Perry first took office. At that time Texas had a lower percentage of students enrolled in college compared to the next ten most populous states. To compete with these other populous states the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) adopted the "closing the gaps" plan in 2000 to challenge higher education institutions to increase enrollment by 630,000 by the year 2015.
In June 2012 THECB released its annual progress report of their "closing the gaps" plan. Since 2000 533,000 more students have enrolled in higher education institutions, the state is now above the target to reach their goal for 2015. Texas is now proving to be producing more college-minded individuals.
Governor Perry wants to put a freeze on four-year tuition expenses to lock in the same amount from freshman to what should be senior year, thus making college more affordable. This would encourage more students to complete a baccalaureate degree within four years with less debt accrued.
Less than 30% of students at Texas' four-year institutions actually graduate within four years.
Only 58% obtain their degree within six years.
In order to improve these graduation rates Governor Perry has developed an incentive plan to encourage institutions by mandating 10% of their state funding will be dependent on how many students are obtaining degrees. If they fail to provide proper resources to efficiently graduate students, they will lose money.
Governor Perry also wants higher education institutions to be more transparent about the cost of graduating within four, five, or six years. This would potentially encourage students and their parents to be more responsible about using their time and money wisely.
Overall by making higher education more affordable and timely efficient there will be decreases in the amount of debt Texans will have when starting their post-college lives.
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