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19 The Pros
By Kay C. Wesson
Special to the Advertiser
As a local REALTOR and owner of a real estate office, it is not uncommon for me to get inquiries from out-of-town business people who are interested in locating operations in Bastrop County. Frequently, they have questions about our community’s workforce – what level of education have our workers attained and what are the possibilities for new job training? I do my best to present Bastrop in a favorable light but, frankly, the numbers could and should be improved. (Educational statistics are available at www.bastropcountyfhe.org/ )
At present, many of our parents, students and workers are unable to afford college tuition. If Bastrop area voters welcome Austin Community College to our community, college enrollment will be a potential reality to far more families than is true today. When the proposition passes, our students will be able to attend full-time at a cost of $1,740 for tuition and fees, compared to the current out-of-district rate of $4,980 annually.
As we’ve seen, the central Texas economy hasn’t been hit by the national recession as badly as many areas of the country. And, as I noted above, there are still folks interested in doing business in this area. As a businesswoman, over the years I’ve seen the economy rise and fall with business cycles. When our area’s economy really starts humming again, the people of Bastrop need to be fully prepared to get their share of the newly created jobs.
That’s where the ACC annexation of the area defined by the district boundaries of Bastrop ISD becomes so very important. After our community showed an interest by petitioning ACC to hold the annexation election this Nov. 2, ACC met with business and education leaders around town and asked specifically what kinds of job training would be of most benefit to our future.
With Bastrop’s specific interests and needs in mind, the college has committed to offer workforce training in the fields of biotechnology, electronics (including robotics and alternative energy), hospitality, meeting/event planning, entrepreneurship/small business programs and culinary arts. These are the kind of courses that will enable our workers to compete for good, higher-paying jobs.
Now is the time for Bastrop to step up and create the right business climate for future job development. In recent years, our community has worked together to build a new high school and to develop community-wide infrastructure to support an expanded retail base. Let’s take the Bastrop area to the next level by providing affordable college training right here at home.
The Cons
By Herb Goldsmith
Special to the Advertiser
H.L. Mencken said, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” I believe the proponents of annexation view Austin Community College as the simple answer to our very complex problem.
Bastrop’s primary higher education need is to better prepare its students to enter the workforce, including not only students who qualify and wish to be ready for college or continuing education when they graduate, but others who may prefer to enter a skilled trade. This need requires an educational system that also focuses on ensuring that more students will earn at least their high school diploma. Based on 2009 statistics for BISD graduates, more youth dropped out of school (69) than enrolled in ACC (65).
ACC has its own issues regarding graduation rates. In 2009 as reported in their Community College Progress Report, although 38 percent of students stated they wanted to earn an associate degree or certificate, only 5 percent earned an AA degree or achieved a certificate in the six year period from 2004 to 2009 (from 4 percent to 5 percent). Keep in mind only 26 percent of the 2007 BISD graduates that enrolled in college chose ACC.
ACC proponents point to reduced cost of education for in district students, but ACC offers no tuition incentive for continuing education (i.e. costs are same whether you are in district or out of district). Furthermore, Texas Association of Community Colleges Spring 2010 figures show that ACC fees for academic out-of-district tuition are the highest of all community colleges in Texas.
One of the main challenges to higher education in Bastrop County is that higher education has not been a broad-based priority and we have only been offered a narrow spectrum of solutions. We now find ourselves adjusting to major changes in our population and prospects for the future.
Today we find ourselves transforming from a stable rural and small town lifestyle toward an uncertain and poorly planned future. The pace of these changes has been dramatically increased by the significance of our relatively new identity as a major community 20 minutes from a commercial airport on a main highway between Austin and Houston.
For example, we are told Bastrop’s population will double over the next ten years by virtue of the new XS Ranch development alone. A recent report by Manpower, Inc. points to a global shortage of skilled trade workers. We should not allow several thousand new Bastrop homes to be built and serviced by skilled workers from outside our community because our high school graduates are not trained or prepared for the technical trades.
I submit that our community’s most pressing higher education needs would be best served by enhancing our public school system so that it adequately prepares our youth for the world of work, including being ready for college/continuing education. The priorities should be to increase the number of college/continuing education enrollments and improve graduation rates (degree or credential) for those that enroll. I further recommend that we research other available options, such as trade or technical schools that will keep pace with current and future workforce needs, rather than reliance only on one two-year college with a continued trend of very low graduation rates.
What people ask about in considering a move to a new community is:
1. What are the tax rates? (12th highest in Texas; 9th with ACC annexation)
2. How are the public schools rated? (BISD still falls short of a “recognized” rating)
Allowing ACC to permanently impose a new tax on Bastrop will not improve the answers to either of those questions.
BISD squandered the bond funds they received. We mustn’t fall for the same old song and dance again. Vote NO on ACC.
Dual use facilities save Tax payer dollars. Everyone is so quick to throw another tax increase on the homeowner. Why not let the students pay for their own education? You can make it cheaper by allowing the use of your existing debt laden Underutilized expansive BISD facilities for ACC. Then, let students pay any Higher Education Institution the actual cost of education less facility cost. If they underperform, you can fire them. After ACC annexation, you lose control.
Texas education code allows for your students to receive in district tuition if you allow ACC to use your facilities. Why build overpriced brick and mortar facilities when you already have them. More and more classes are being taught over the internet, and the ones where hands on is required you have the place to have them already.Dual use facilities save tax payer dollars, we have to stop massive spending on the local level if we ever expect the Federal Government to stop also.
Phase 1 of Round Rock just opened with interest it is going to cost taxpayers $216 million. Seems as though ACC is using the Federal Government model for their own business model. Do you want to help pay for it?
One of Ms. Wesson’s key points concerning the need for workforce training deserves clarification, especially since those for ACC constantly remind us that in-district tuition rates are less than out-of-district rates. The simple fact is that most of the workforce training that she cites as important fall into ACC’s Continuing Education Department, and those courses/certificates cost the same whether you are in-district or out-of-district. Also, one ACC campus can not cover all academic regimens or workforce training types. A student/trainee will end up traveling to other ACC campuses to begin or complete their course of study.
I am not in favor of Austin Community College because of ACC’s track record. Bastrop does not need to come to the aid of ACC. BISD has too many issues that need tending.
Before we can have a college, Bastrop needs to graduate a higher percentage of students college and career ready. The drop out rate has to decrease.
The performance rate of ACC is abysmal. Only 15% of the students who start college full time go on to earn a 4-year degree. Even fewer, 11% earn a two-year degree. Just 12% of full-time African-American students earned two or four-year degrees.
It is ineffective and costly to send students to college who are not college ready.
The cost associated with students not college ready who entered public higher education in 2003 and had not completed their programs by 2009 caused a loss of $713.2 million in state and federal financial aid dollars and a loss of $330.3 million in state general revenue.
In 2009, 599,282 semester credit hours were dropped at public universities costing the state $62.3 million.
Until BISD graduates students college and career ready, we are only feeding students into this problem.
Approving ACC is like putting the cart before the horse.
I hope the citizens of Bastrop will relize what the ACC campus will bring to the area– If BISD and ACC will work together to expand course offerings for what is needed in the county then you will see a win/win situation for everyone. This includes the academic and trade areas of courses offered to the students. Take “PRIDE” in being Bastrop County.
As stated by so many, the benefits of ACC coming to Bastrop are not what the proponents of ACC would have us think. Poor completion rates, huge debt and an overgrown bureaucracy are what we have to look forward to. Every reason to join the ACC bureaucracy has been countered with accurate evidence that states we will be sold a “bill of goods”.
For example, higher education opportunity. ACC cannot bring to this community jobs as they have stated. High education, in the form of research universities and colleges have the resources to attract business. Community colleges do not. ( stated in a study on community colleges but the University of Virginia). Tutition breaks. For the cost of private college tutition, ACC will deliver a package to the community that will place in debt forever. The federal government already provides $4,000 in tax credits for higher education. There are numerous loans that are forgiveable in part, or in total. One just needs to research the grant and work through the requirments.
We are told that we are sinking under a mound of debt. Actually the federal government is. Our local government is holding on to a staggering debt load. ACC will bring a huge debt to our community. For this debt, and our tax dollars, they will provide a service that is already funded.
If we do not force our government to reduce its debt load, if we allow more debt to be heaped on ourselves, we will preside over the failure of this nation’s economy. I have heard it often said, ACC is will only cost the tax payer a small amount. Is it ethical to reach into the pocket of our neighbor and forcebly take money from them? We have gotten so used to that concept that we have forgotten what our true responsibility is to our country. Rather we allows the, “throw money at the problem” crowd to dictate where our money should go.
As I have stated before, you can only throw some much straw on a camel’s back, before you break that back. If what our economists are saying is true, we had better stop throwing those bales on our backs and start reducing our load, or face financial ruin. By saying no to ACC, we can start that process and send a warning to our political leaders that unbrided spending our our dollars is not acceptable.
“Taxes are forever. Tutition is temporary” (stolen from another online commentor)
Back in July I attended the forum at the Opera House where the ACC president said that ACC did not increase the tax rate. A month later in the Austin American Stateman newspaper there was a big article about the tax rate increase for ACC. I have 3 children that have obtained their bachelor degrees with loans, scholarships, and grants. Money is out there, you just have to go look for it. For the students that say they can’t afford college, how many own cell phones, internet service and have cable at their house. Someone is paying that bill. Just because you own a home, does not mean you have extra money for a tax increase. Bastrop community needs to be aware that if ACC passes, you will be stuck with a tax increase as long as you own your home. This tax is not a one time thing. As the appraisal district continues to increase home values, your taxes will go up. ACC lied about the tax rate increase. What else are they keeping from the citizens of Bastrop. Graduating students should be encouraged to attend college elsewhere. There is a big world outside of Bastrop to explore.
ACC is not a win-win situation. The tax money paid to ACC is money taken away from BISD, the City of Bastrop, and Bastrop County. The last school bond passed took 4 attempts before it finally passed. The next school bond will probably never pass if ACC is added to your list of taxes.
Secondly, if BISD graduated more students college ready who did not need remedial classes upon entering college, ACC would not be even in the picture.
When students graduate prepared for college, you get results like Westlake where between the years 2002-2009 127 more students went to UT (511 students) than ACC (384).
Furthermore ACC quality of education looks like this:
15% of its students earned a Bachelor’s degree within 6 years
11% of its students earned an Associate’s degree within 6 yrs.
5% of its students earned a certificate within 6 years.
AND……………………………
69% OF ITS STUDENTS EARNED NO AWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this what you call success and where you want to spend your tax dollars???
BASTROP’S NUMBER ONE NEED is to adequately prepare graduates for college.
Of the 408 graduates in 2007, 91 went to a 4-year college and 100 went to a 2-year college. The performance of these students shows that 45% of these students had a 2.5 Grade Point Average or lower after their first year of college.
Jim,
I disagree with you. Bastrop should teach our youth to either go to college OR to enter the work force. I am tired of the BISD board thinking that EVERYONE MUST go to college.
I am a business owner and have no college degree. I would love to hire high school graduates will not because I can’t shepherd them around and teach them how to work.
The employees I need are people that can work by themselves and don’t need me to constantly tell them how good they are or keep showing them how I want things done. I DON’T need graduates that quit, lie or cheat.
The work ethic should have been taught by their parents, but the parents give that job to the schools and the schools do a horrible job.
As I drive to Austin four days a week and two days to Fredericksburg, going to ACC…I pass a White Elephant on the south side of 71 called CCHS. And tho, I do not live in Bastrop, I must concede to the concept of ACC being bad for the area. VHenry is right and I will only say it once. This time.
After my oldest daughter (12) tells her mother and I that she wants to be a Vet…my mind went to “she wants to go to the most expensive school in the state…”. But all of them are expensive, to the tune of $20,000 plus a year. And she wants to take my money to A&M. I told her the only way she will get that kind of money is scholarship or the military (Post 9-11 GI BILL).
These are tax funded schools. Just like our local schools. Places like Westlake and Leander ISD pride themselves on having the highest standard of education in the area. There are others, but these are the prominent ones.
When my wife and I moved to the Austin area, we looked at the Bastrop and Smithville area schools and we were not impressed.
Bastrop and Smithville want that “Small Town Charm” to last forever. Sorry to say that the fruit is dying on the vine. We have our Bypass and it looks like SETON is going to take over Smithville Regional, the world is passing us by in our corner of the world. But this alone will not save us.
Tax revenue thrown out the window to appeal to “BIG” business further burdening the citizens. And the Businesses that don’t or wont come to the area force The Citizens in our “Small Towns” to take the money that could be used here, to Austin and San Antonio. Just because we want to be “Small”. This taking sales tax money out of the area.
As my old boss told me once “Ric, Austin is growing, and soon people will be moving to Bastrop county. you may want to buy there before the taxes get you where you are living now.” He was right.
We moved here not because it is small but because we like the area. We force our kids to be as attentive in school. As we their parents were when school was taught cover to cover instead of to the TAKS. If you passed you went on to the next grade. If you didn’t, you were stuck in the same grade. This is how college is, and our kids are not being tought this way. You pass TAKS you pass, secondly, grades are dependent. How can we, as taxpayers and parents support ACC coming to the area if we can’t get our kids to the level they need to be to go to college in the first place. I have asked this before on another post and I am going to ask it again, where is our tax money going to if our children are not achieving high enough scores to go to college and successfully complete it? Is it sports? Do we we have award winning teams that I am not aware of that the big colleges hit us first for their choices? Do we have state of the art schools? Or are we spending it on a school board that is doing everything in their power not to do anything except spend the budget on what ever THEY think we want and not listen to the people that put them in “power”? Sorry if this sound too familiar as the Feds are currently doing this to us already.
Those that live in BISD say no to ACC…at least until BISD gets their act together. Then kick the cities of Bastrop and Smithville in the butt and tell them the same thing, get your act together! The film industry is a fickle thing. We need to bring Businesses, not ACC, into town not the other way around! We CAN be “small” in a big way! If we have more to offer we could pick and chose what we want as far as higher education in the area. Who knows, Dare I say it…Bastrop Community College?
Ric is right about one thing, for sure. We should not expect the school to instill a work ethic in our children. That is our jobs, as parents. The ISD is tasked by our elected heroes in Austin to teach to the lowest level.
However, I will give BISD kudos for an excellent AP program. Make sure your students enroll in RIGOROUS classes. Do not let them “just get by”. That is your responsibility as a parent. Instill in them that hard work pays off. Our children can graduate from BISD with credit hours earned on AP exams, not a mickey mouse ACC course. Those are a JOKE!
ACC is a continuation of “just getting by”. No one, seriously, can consider ACC “higher education”.
Pat,
You are right. I should have written, “College and Career ready.” But the term “Going to college,” in the educational circle means any education beyond high school. For example, even the certificate programs are considered college. everything from the certificate programs to a 4-year degree is considered, “going to college.”
Yes, it is too bad all parents aren’t more involved with their children, but schools have to operate much like hospitals: A hospital can’t turn people away because they neglected to take care of themselves properly thus causing health problems needing medical attention or made foolish decisions and neither can schools. We have to take our students just like they are and teach them to the best of our ability.
Ethics complaints were filed with the Texas Ethics Commission and accepted by TEC against Bastrop ISD school board trustees, a principal, the three co-chairs of Bastrop County Friends of Higher Education, the President of ACC and his Special Assistant for External Affairs over the petition that was circulated to put this on the ballot.
The Austin Business Journal website at http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2010/09/06/daily56.html is carrying the story. It was online last Friday but I haven’t seen it on this website. If the Advertiser is fair and balanced surely it will put it online as well as in our newspaper.
I realize that Cox Communications owns both the Statesman and the Advertiser but surely as a newspaper that carries news, both will – eventually – carry this news that is of interest to our voters.
I also read that Dr. Kinslow, the President of ACC, was pleased to be one of the 3,000 invited attendees at the Obama speech at UT in Austin on Aug. 9. As the President of a community college in Austin and I would assume a Democrat since he was invited, I’ve no problem with that. Typically at presidential speeches, only members of that party are invited – happens with every administration. However, Dr. Kinslow said in the article that he agreed with Obama’s view of education. I think that statement alone would make me immediately take my child out of ACC and enroll him in another college.
Jim,
Do you realize that most employers, including myself, are NOT in the education circle. This is the first time that I have ever heard about certificate programs being considered “College”.
I guess that this means that since I received a certificate in Pet First Aid, means I went to college. That is NOT college in my book.
Dorthy,
Thanks for the information. I heard about this on the news this morning and hope that the Bastrop taxpayers win and this gets removed from the ballot in November.
Pat,
I know what you mean, but I think you would much rather take your pet to someone who received training and has been certified in Pet First aid rather than to someone who has no certificate at all.
There are many, many certificate programs offered by community colleges and each of these certificates gives those students an edge over students who only graduate from high school.
No, certificates such as those aren’t comparible to my Master’s Degree, but if I would rather take my car to someone with the proper certificates over someone who works under trees fixing cars….etc.
The school district/teachers are not the ones who are accountable for all the High school/college drop outs; it is bad parenting. There are going to be quitters in every group so that rant of stats is just plan silly.
Guys,
I just happe to stumble onto your conversation & found it rather interesting. Many parts I agree with. I live in Bastrop County- however not in BISD. On entry 11 Ric, what caught my eye was his reference to “the White elephant on the south side of 71. ” that is one thing that I feel that y’all should be very thankful for as BISD parents. from the road, it is a beautiful building & with growth expected it is cheaper to build now then later. Which I believe is a true statement. However, my pride of the CCHS is not for even educational related. It is for the purpose of protection for the students. In case you have been busy fighting the issue of ACC coming, the county comissionners have unanimously approved the
Cent. Tx. Airport coming to Bastrop County in the Colorado River
basin with the runway pointed toward the CCHS. So, if by chance these airplans taking off where to suck a bird into the engine or have a malfunction while they are trying to climb out of the river basin, over the new subdivisions on the south side of the river, they may crash land into the CCHS. Our prayers can only be, that the “white elephant” is strong enough to protect our (BISD) kids.
Then talking about how we are not going to have anymore taxs for this misadventure, I guess that the commissioners think that the roads of 969, 1704 & 1209 are going to improve themselves. #7 Laura thinks that ACC lied, maybe so, but they are not the only ones.
Growth in NOT going to happen in the 12th highest taxed county in Texas. If ACC passes, we will be the 9th. Bastrop is rapidly becoming the “place you left behind.” If the elected misfits and local elite have their way, Bastrop will become East Austin.
ACC and their promoters have lied over and over again concerning studying alternatives and the benefits. ACC is actually one of the most poorly performing community colleges charging some of the highest out of district tuition rates. They charge these high rates to lure unsuspecting taxpayers into thinking they are a good deal.
I am hoping BISD Taxpayers will not fall for this con on Tuesday. Contrary to popular belief, Bastrop won’t die if we don’t become Cedar Park or Round Rock. We can turn a corner and send the developers, carpetbaggers and their elected puppets packing. Let’s start on Nov 2nd. Next step is to field and fund candidates and make a clean sweep of the Commissioners Court. Be sure to check out acctaxfacts.com for the facts about the ACC plan.
If it passes we should erect signs at the entrances to the County announcing “WELCOME TO BASTROP, THE 9TH HIGHEST TAXES IN THE STATE.”