Texas, that famous bastion of conservatism, has become a leading exporter of agricultural products to communist Cuba — second only to Louisiana among the 50 states.
Higher Education
Coverage of universities, colleges, student issues, and education policy shaping Texas’ campuses, from The Texas Tribune.
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Higher Education
The Old College Try
Since 1999, the number of “dual-credit” students — those who take college courses while still in high school — across Texas has ballooned from fewer than 12,000 to more than 91,000. It’s a trend that’s likely to continue as state and local policymakers search for ways to better align curricula and to push more kids to continue their education. “Schools have started to look at it as great for kids who might not have thought they were college material,” says an official at the Higher Education Coordinating Board. “It’s both a gifted-and-talented program and a college-accessibility program.”
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Higher Education
TribBlog: Starr to Baylor: It’s Official
Kenneth Starr will be introduced tomorrow as the 14th president of Baylor University in Waco, confirming the rumors that began circulating widely over the weekend.
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Criminal Justice
A Better App: Public Employee Pay
Find the salaries of more than 340,000 public employees with our enhanced data application, including those working at the largest state agencies as well as individual public schools, cities and mass-transit operators. And universities: Did you know, for instance, that of the 10 highest-paid professors at the state’s two largest universities, nine are Aggies?
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Higher Education
TribBlog: Is Ken Starr the Next President of Baylor?
Waco’s vibrating with a rumor that the Texas-born lawyer nationally known as the independent counsel who ran Bill Clinton to ground will be named president of Baylor University this week.
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Economy
From Bust to Boom
The recession has caused a spike in enrollment at two-year schools like Austin Community College, which now educates more than 40,000 students — within striking distance of the great behemoth, the University of Texas at Austin.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Thevenot on the abysmally low community college graduation rate and higher ed’s coming budgetary winter. Ramshaw on Terri Hodge’s guilty plea and hasty exit. Grissom on the Department of Public Safety’s use of dreaded federal stimulus funds to plug a hole in the state’s border security budget. Hu on the first of the intraparty face-offs in our Primary Color series. Ramsey and Stiles on the congressional candidates with the most money on hand. Ramsey on whether Farouk Shami’s accent and name are an obstacle to his election. Aguilar on the fever-tick epidemic overwhelming South Texas. Rapoport on TxDOT’s hard road and the State Board of Education’s lack of finance expertise. Philpott on how Barack Obama’s budget will impact Texas. M. Smith on whether lawyers giving to judges is a good thing. Hamilton on the latest transportation innovations on the drawing board. The best of our best from February 1 to 5, 2010.
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Economy
Burned Orange
A clash over a beloved campus music club at UT-Austin portends the gnashing of teeth at schools statewide as a budgetary winter threatens to envelop higher education.
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Higher Education
A Matter of Degrees
Community colleges pitch themselves as the gateway to prosperity for lower-income students who’ve been historically shut out of higher education. Trouble is, despite increasing enrollment numbers, few of them graduate.
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Economy
No Experience Necessary
Few members of the State Board of Education have finance expertise. Should we be concerned that they manage the investments of the $23 billion Permanent School Fund?