Just a reminder since today is election day here in Texas. Vote for Prop 4

Currently, Texas loses more than 10,000 high school graduates per year who leave the state to attend doctoral granting universities in other states, while attracting only about 4,000 students from other states to attend doctoral granting universities in Texas. This brain drain represents a significant loss of critical young talent for Texas.

During the 2009 legislative session, the Texas Legislature passed a bill that proposes a constitutional amendment to take existing funds, Higher Education Fund (HEF), and make them available to institutions designated as emerging research universities. Proposition 4, as it is called, calls for establishing “the National Research University Fund to enable emerging research universities in this state to achieve national prominence as major research universities and transferring the balance of the higher education fund to the national research university fund.”

Texas currently has only three flagship universities that are considered national research universities, otherwise known as Tier One: The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University and Rice University. Texas lags greatly in this area behind states such as California, which has nine top-tier schools, and New York, which has seven.

If the Prop 4 passes, universities designated as emerging research universities will compete for millions in research dollars that will transform them into national research universities in Texas. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has designated seven universities as emerging research universities are vying for flagship status: Texas Tech, University of Houston, University of North Texas, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Texas at El Paso and University of Texas at San Antonio.

The creation of additional top-tier universities will help in keeping more of our best and brightest students in the state, and help to attract more top students from other states and nations. It will also help attract more top scientists, engineers and scholars, thereby increasing the amount of external research dollars brought into the Texas economy.

If Texas is to thrive in the global economy, more top-tier universities must be developed to spur economic growth, sustain an educated workforce and support innovative research. Top-tier universities create unique opportunities for a highly skilled workforce, particularly in the sciences, engineering and professional fields critical to economic success.

While I support the intentions and purpose of Proposition 4, as the Proposition seeks to increase the number of top-tier universities in Texas. However, my support does come with some reservation.

It is without question that our state is losing high school graduates to other states because this state is limited to two flagship universities, UT-Austin and Texas A&M. However, in a state with only two flagship universities, part of the brain drain problem is the education caste system that goes beyond the gridiron. It is a system that tends to stigmatize students who attend non-flagship schools.

Students and their parents have much to consider when picking a school. The common belief is that those that come from schools with higher rankings are thought to have some type leverage or advantage over those not attending the same type of school. It is this education caste system that has allowed one group (in this case UT-Austin and Texas A&M) to monopolize opportunities by maintaining a social distance order, which now has come back to haunt them.

After a federal court in 1996 struck down the use of race-based affirmative-action policies in higher education admissions, Texas lawmakers established new criteria for policies designed to increase diversity at state colleges and universities without directly basing admissions on the applicant’s race or ethnicity. The “Top 10 Percent Law,” enacted the following year by the 75th Legislature, guarantees admission to any of Texas’ 35 public universities if they graduate in the top 10 percent of their class.

Since the enactment of the Top 10 Percent Law, naturally, those who graduated top 10 percent in their class decided to apply to Texas’ flagship schools. When those institutions turn them down because they did nor do not have room for all the qualified students, they either tried they lucky at an elite private institution, such as Rice University, or to leave Texas to attend a flagship public university in another state – opting out from applying to the so-called “lower level” colleges. Texas’ brain drain is a direct result from this state’s education caste system.

Several other states have done a much better job of providing their populations with the advanced educational opportunities of flagship universities. Comparing Texas with California illuminates why Texas’ university systems is unable to handle the influx of incoming students. In California, a high school has six public schools to choose that, according to the current U.S. News and World Report rankings, rate above UT-Austin (46th) and Texas A&M (61st). Therefore, a California student attending a UC-San Diego is not viewed as settling for less as a Texas student attending UT-San Antonio or El Paso or even the University of Houston.

A major problem of this bill, it is predicted two or three will be able to join the ranks of UT-Austin and Texas A&M. As a result, every community will support the idea of an additional flagship school until one community is selected, and at that point the danger will be that the communities that lost out will lose enthusiasm for the project. Given that, we should not halt progress because only a couple institutions will be considered a flagship. Given the economic reality, progress will be slow we are forced to concentrate a few institutions at a time. So please vote for Prop 4.

If you are not registered to vote in Texas, you can complete the application online or browse a list of voter registration officials organized by county.

Tags: colleges, Elections, higher education, Prop 4, Texas, Tier One, UH, UTEP, UTSA | |
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