State Agencies Undergo Sunset Review Process – Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
Over the past month or so, I have been outlining Texas’ sunset review process. The agencies I have covered so far include the Texas Education Agency, the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee and the Railroad Commission and several others. As a reminder, in order to identify and eliminate government waste, duplication and general inefficiencies in state agencies, the Texas Legislature established the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission (Commission) in 1977. The sunset review process is designed to review each of these agencies every twelve years. This review is done by taking up a certain number of the state agencies each session when the Texas Legislature convenes.
In last week’s article we examined the Texas Education Agency which is responsible for the oversight and administration of the public school system in Texas. In this week’s article we are going to look at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board which is responsible with providing the Texas higher education system with leadership and coordination. In 1965 the 59th Texas Legislature created the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and since that time they have been working to help achieve excellence for our state’s college students.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is administered by a nine member board, which is appointed by the Governor. Each member serves a six-year term and no member is allowed to be employed in education or to serve on a community college board of trustees. In addition to appointing the members of the board the Governor also appoints the members who will serve as the Chair and Vice-Chair.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board outlines their mission statement as “to work with the Legislature, Governor, governing boards, higher education institutions and other entities to help Texas meet the goals of the state’s higher education plan, Closing the Gaps by 2015, and thereby provide the people of Texas the widest access to higher education of the highest quality in the most efficient manner.”
Beginning in 2000 the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board launched “Closing the Gaps by 2015”. The goals of the initiative are to increase access, improve postsecondary completion rates, develop additional research opportunities, and to improve the quality of higher education in Texas. An economic analysis was done by the Ray Perryman Group and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The economic study showed that if Texas is able to achieve the outlined goals of “Closing the Gaps by 2015”, the state would see an increase of $489 billion in direct spending, $194 billion in gross state product, $122 billion in personal income, and the creation of 1,023,000 new jobs in the State of Texas by 2030. The return in investment is estimated at $8.08 for every $1 invested.
If you are interested in learning more about the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, you can go to their website at https://www.thecb.state.tx.us/ . On their site you can find more information on “Closing the Gaps by 2015”, information on applying and paying for college and many other things. Some of the other agencies we will review in the upcoming weeks include the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and a number of other agencies currently going through the sunset process.
