President of Brazosport College says Texas is shirking it's duty by failing to fund community college employee health care insurance
Dr. Millicent Valek
Every year more than one million students pass through the doors of Texas community colleges in search of their dreams. Some students embark on a journey toward earning a bachelors degree, while others seek to acquire the workforce skills needed to help grow the state’s economy. As the fastest growing sector of higher education the future of Texas relies greatly on the success of community colleges.
Today, in the midst of nationwide economic troubles, the role of community colleges has never been more significant. According to State Comptroller Susan Combs an increase of 10,000 students in community college enrollments would add 13,000 jobs to the Texas economy within one year. Our institutions are well positioned to provide solutions for the workforce and economic growth needs of the state.
Texas community colleges have been doing their part to bring these educational opportunities to Texans. Over the past seven years, community college enrollments have risen by more than 31%, adding nearly 140,000 new students (the equivalent of nearly three Universities of Texas at Austin or five Texas Tech Universities). Despite this enormous growth in our enrollments, community colleges have worked hard to keep student costs low. Over the past ten years community college students have seen on average only a 2.6% annual increase in tuition & fees statewide.
Community Colleges have operated with the understanding that a partnership exists between local colleges and the state. Under this compact, the state promised local communities it would fund the instructional costs for community colleges if local residents would tax themselves to build and maintain necessary the physical facilities. In this partnership, the state historically funded community college employee health care insurance based on an employee’s job function – teaching and serving our students. With this partnership the state’s 50 community college districts have flourished.
However, the state’s historical commitment to this agreement has been shrinking. Over the years – good economic times and bad – the community college state formula has continued to be largely underfunded. Because of this, community colleges have been forced to use student tuition and local tax dollars to fill the growing state funding gap. Some contend that now the state should only pay part of the health insurance costs of our faulty and staff.
The argument for the state paying only a proportional share is based on the notion of linking employee health insurance funding to the level state formula funding. By tying the funding of these critical employee insurance benefits to the amount of state formula funding our colleges will be penalized for shouldering costs, which are the state’s responsibility. This will result in an even greater financial burden being placed on students and local communities.
The historical partnership between the state and community colleges needs to be renewed. An essential step toward accomplishing this is for the 81st Legislature to honor its commitment to community college employees by passing Senate Bill 41 by Senator Judith Zaffirini. With passage of this bill, community colleges will be better equipped to hire and retain talented faculty and staff members who are essential components in providing quality educational opportunities for all students.
Community colleges remain committed to their missions of providing excellent educational opportunities for students and as a place where any Texan reach for their dreams. But they need support. The state must continue its commitment of paying group health care insurance for community college faculty & staff. Senate Bill 41 would ensure that our colleges can rely on the state to remain our partners in providing solutions for the economic and workforce needs of Texas.
Dr. Valek is the Chair of the Texas Association of Community Colleges and President of Brazosport College
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A 'thumbs up' for transparency in school district spending
By:Michael Sullivan
How does your school district spend your money? Betcha you can't find out... That's why taxpayers should be contacting their lawmakers in support of legislation filed State Rep. Mark Strama (D-Austin), H.B. 1314, and State Rep. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), H.B. 1307. Of the two, Creighton's HB 1307 is more comprehensive. Both would shine much-needed sunlight on Texas' public education spending.
Strama was the lead author on last Session's HB 3430 to provide extensive statewide fiscal transparency. Strama's bill would simply require school districts to post their financial statements quarterly.
Creighton, one of our Taxpayer Champions from the last Session, would go much further and do a lot more for the cause of transparency. His legislation would require districts to post their expenditures -- checks written and credit card transactions -- within one month.
Taxpayers should demand both. We get handed the bill, it's time for us to be allowed to examine the receipt.
Reprinted by permission from the Empower Texans website.
Michael Quinn Sullivan is President & CEO of Empower Texans, a 501c4 non-profit organization promoting free markets in an effort to empower Texans. Empower Texans' premier project is Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. The organization also manages the Empower Texans PAC, which is directly engaged in the electoral process in Texas.
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Where the new Hate Crime legislation is going
I've been meaning to research and write a piece on the blatant left-wing attack on Christianity and free speech that is underway, but a woman named Janet Porter beat me to it, and did a better job than I could have.
In a piece called Here's 'change': End of free speech, Ms. Porter raises the red flag of indignation as a warning to the punishments we might all soon face for having an opinion.
An excerpt:
Two bills are already in the House Judiciary Committee: H.R.256 and H.R.262. We've been lead to believe it's about crime, but there are already laws against crime. This thing is about speech. Don't believe me? Rep. (and former judge) Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, pointed out in the House Judiciary Committee the bill "is going to put pastors in prison." Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code, Section 2 (a) reads:
(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal. – 18 USC Sec. 2
That means if you "counsel someone," or write a book, or read from the Bible (such as what Obama says is an "obscure" passage in the first chapter of Romans), you could be found guilty of "inducing" someone to commit a crime.
The Homosexual Triangle Foundation's executive director, Jeff Montgomery, told the Saginaw News back in April 2005: "Vocal anti-gay activists should be held accountable as accessories to these crimes because, many times, it is their rhetoric that led the perpetrators to believe their crimes are OK."
There it is. If your beliefs don't echo the left's, they are rhetoric, leading perpetrators to commit crimes.
I regret I don't have reprint permission from Ms. Porter, but you can read the whole article at
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=89142.
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Senator John Cornyn on the recently passed stimulus bill
Texas Times
Feb 10, 2009
By:Sen. John Cornyn
For months, Americans across the country have been grappling with the results of our nation's economic downturn: layoffs, foreclosures, salary cuts, and the tough family budgeting decisions that go hand in hand with a recession. While Texas has fared better than most states—largely due to our pro-business economic policies and the can-do spirit inherent to the Texas culture —we are not immune.
According to Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Paulken, "Our state's economy has been fairly resilient during these months of economic uncertainty, but the national economic storm has reached Texas." In January, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs predicted a loss of 111,000 Texas jobs and announced a 10.5 percent drop in tax revenue in this fiscal year. In North Texas, the jobless rate has climbed to 5.6 percent—a significant ascent from one year ago, when the rate was 4.1 percent. The jobless rate for the entire state recently hit 6 percent—nearly two percentage points higher than a year ago.
The housing crunch has taken its toll in Texas as well. In 2008, Texas was listed as one of the top ten states in foreclosure totals. Meritage, one of the nation's biggest homebuilders with more than 65 percent of its communities located in Texas, reported that its fourth-quarter orders in Texas fell 61 percent. Experts claim that a decrease in prices in some of Texas' top industries like oil and natural gas is having a negative impact on the state's housing market.
In the U.S. Senate, I have been working with my colleagues to stop the recession in its tracks and turn the economic tide back in our favor. This has been no easy task. Unfortunately, while the new President has indicated his desire for bipartisanship, Democrat leaders in Congress have taken a different approach, attempting to jam an enormous spending bill totaling more than $1 trillion down the taxpayers’ throats.
Instead of producing a plan aimed at reviving the housing market, providing significant tax relief to hard-working Americans, and creating quality jobs for men and women looking for work—the Democrat plan instead reflects a political slush fund brimming with billion-dollar pet projects that will not have an immediate, tangible effect on our nation's economic health.
With respect to Texas' interests in the economic rescue plan, the most simple analogy that comes to mind is 'robbing Peter to pay Paul.' In Texas, we have embraced low taxes and pro-growth policies that support our small businesses and middle class families. The Democrats' plan would take billions in Texas taxpayer dollars and reward reckless states with pet projects dressed in 'stimulus' clothing. Some of the more absurd examples include a request for $600 million to build an "ethnic heritage trail" or a request for $6 million to build three aquatic centers with water slides.
My Republican colleagues and I have sought to improve this inflated bill by offering low-tax, pro-growth amendments. I offered an amendment that would have lowered the 10 percent tax bracket to 5 percent, providing much needed relief to every taxpayer who pays income tax and files their taxes by April 15. Unfortunately, this was blocked by Senate Democrats. Another important amendment, offered by Sen. John Ensign, would have provided much-needed relief to the struggling housing market by reducing mortgage rates to as low as 4 percent for millions of homeowners. More than 3 million mortgages in Texas could have qualified for refinancing under this measure, and each household would have benefited from $293 in savings on monthly payments. This amendment was also defeated.
Sadly, while the American people were counting on Congress to present a final economic rescue product that reflects bipartisanship and includes true tax relief and tangible economic growth measures, the Democrats' $1.2 trillion "stimulus" package is no such product.
We need to work together to craft legislation that provides real relief for everyday Texans. It should begin with providing much overdo relief to the struggling housing market. Secondly, the majority of any economic stimulus plan should be tangible tax relief for families and small businesses. Hard-working Texans deserve to keep more of their own money to spend, save and invest how they see fit. Finally, any proposed new spending must be made fully transparent to ensure Congress is not spending taxpayer dollars on unnecessary or ineffective projects.
If American families are having to tighten their belts and make tough financial decisions, the federal government should follow suit. I will continue to fight for a common-sense plan that incorporates these principles to help Texans weather the economic storm and emerge stronger and more prosperous.
Sen. Cornyn serves on the Finance, Judiciary and Budget Committees. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee's Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.
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