Could budget cuts hurt Texas’ college graduation rates?
Proposed cuts to financial aid could hurt graduation rates at Texas’ colleges, especially ones with a greater percentage of needy students, higher education leaders warned. At the same time, governor’s advisers are championing a proposal to base university funding partly on those graduation rates. In Texas, about 57 percent of public university students earn degrees within six years of enrollment, which is right at the national average of 56.8 percent. But only about 25 percent of Texans hold a college degree or certificate, according to 2008 data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), versus a national average of about 40 percent, according to the College Completion Agenda. “I think that’s part of the rapid demographic changes in Texas…. We’re one of the states challenged by a fast-growing Latino population, which is the least well-educated demographic,” said Dr. Diana Natalicio, president of the University of Texas-El Paso, regarding the 25 percent figure for Tex
