THECB meeting moved to after election day, postponing critical reports

2 hours ago

3 min read

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) was slated to meet next week but moved their quarterly meeting from Oct. 21 to Nov. 16, after the midterm elections. It’s no coincidence that highly anticipated reports on the SB 37-mandated General Education Curriculum (GEC) changes and the SB 17 implementation impact study were set to be published and presented during the now-postponed meeting.

SB 37 charged the THECB with creating the General Education Advisory Committee to review existing core curriculum requirements and recommend changes for condensing the number of general education curriculum courses required at institutions of higher education. At the last board meeting, preliminary presentations on the committee’s progress hinted at a “more focused” core and reduce “excess hours,” which UT Austin seems to already be experimenting with in their recently proposed core program that falls below the state’s 42-hour statutory requirement.

Over the course of the past year, major overhauls to GEC offerings – disproportionately hitting programs covering climate change, women’s and LGBT studies, and ethnic studies – have sent shockwaves of confusion through our public universities. Each university system adopted their own core eligibility standards, dropping more than 100 course offerings at a time with little to no transparency on how or why classes were removed. The final report, which would have been made public next week if the board kept their scheduled date, would have given insight into the legislature’s plans for the future of the core curriculum, which has remained fundamentally unchanged since its establishment in 1987.

SB 17 (88R) mandated a biennial study to evaluate the impact of the bill on student success metrics. The inaugural report, published in December of 2024 and reviewing metrics from 2022 and 2023, serves as a baseline to compare future outcomes by. The study measures metrics based on the following questions:

Has there been an increase in the number of Texas residents applying to public institutions of higher education (IHEs) by sex and race/ethnicity?
Do acceptance rates vary for applicants by sex and race/ethnicity?
Do matriculation rates vary by sex and race/ethnicity?
Do retention rates vary by sex and race/ethnicity?
Do percentages of students earning a GPA above 2.0 after their first year vary by sex and race/ethnicity?
Do graduation rates for students attendings public IHEs vary by sex and race/ethnicity?

When universities shut down vital student support programs in 2024 in response to SB 17, including mass terminations of support staff, we knew it would have devastating impacts on student outcomes. It’s no wonder Governor Abbott pushed the board meeting back until after Election Day. If voters could see that policy decisions being made by Gov. Abbott and his legislative allies have had a direct and negative impact on Texas’s prized colleges, it would provide them with another reason to vote for change.

Although we can anticipate what the reports will say when they’re eventually published, we need to keep educating Texans on what’s happening on our campuses and get out the vote for candidates who can change the trajectory of higher education for the better. Until Nov 2, Texas AFT will be holding weekly sessions on Mondays to inform advocates about public and higher education issues and textbank for our endorsed candidates.

Join us this coming Monday, Oct. 19, for an Educating Texas session on censorship and academic freedom. Hear from your fellow Texas AAUP-AFT leaders and join them in text banking for candidates like Gina Hinojosa, who has the power to appoint university regents and put a stop to the overhaul of our college campuses. Register here!