Deep in the Heart of Texas Higher Education
We are “on the road again” with our state editions and, as evident by our cover, we are focusing on the state of Texas.
First, let me add a disclaimer. When we embark on these editions, it’s impossible to cover an entire state and feature every college and university. We aim to highlight a few schools and cover a relevant and timely public policy matter related to higher education in the respective state.
Texas, the second-most populous state in the country with more than 23 million people, is known for many things — it’s a leading producer of oil, beef and cotton, and it’s also home to 143 public and private institutions of higher education. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 23 percent of Texans over the age of 25 has a bachelor’s degree, almost mirroring the national rate of 24.4 percent. But the state is trying to improve these numbers as part of its “Closing the Gaps by 2015” initiative, the goal of which is to increase the number of students enrolled in Texas colleges and universities by 630,000 by 2015. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, current trends put the expected increase at 300,000, so there’s much work to do to more than double that number.
The Hispanic population in Texas, which is about 35 percent of the state, accounted for 58 percent of the state’s higher education enrollment growth from fall 2004 to fall 2005, according to the state higher ed board. Put together, Blacks and Hispanics make up 36 percent of the students in Texas higher education, even though they represent 55 percent of the state’s 15- to 34-year-old population.
