The Texas comptroller announced yesterday that next year’s state budget shortfall, already tens of billions of dollars, will be $4.3 billion more because Texas has been running an operating deficit for its last two fiscal years. Cuts of twenty to thirty percent in higher education are being discussed in Austin right now.
Please click on this link to an article describing why improved and more accessible higher education is critical to the future of Texas and showing where Texas ranks relative to other states and countries: DMN: Employment growth and higher education by Bill White.
For the first time, young Texans are less educated than the generation of their parents. Cuts in public universities and community colleges will hurt Texas’ long run competitiveness for high wage jobs, where we have already fallen behind at current funding levels. More detail can be found in the 2009 Report of The Select Commission on Higher Education and Global Competitiveness.
You can share your concern by writing or emailing your local newspaper expressing your views on the importance of investing in education. Texas is a great state with great people and prospects. And certainly we can always spend public money more efficiently. But we should not miss the opportunity to prepare for a future with better education and training, resulting in rising incomes and greater opportunities.\
