Dateline: January 25, 2007

CC seeks increased state funds

Clarendon College Regents threw their support behind efforts to increase state funding for community colleges when they met in regular session last Thursday.

Regents considered and adopted a resolution backing the plan of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to seek an additional $640 million in statewide funding, which would mean an increase of more than $750,000 for Clarendon College.

CC President Myles Shelton said this week that the future of Texas is the real issue behind the need for higher funding.

“We believe the economic well being of Texas is at stake if they (the Legislature) don’t fund higher education at the appropriate level,” he said.

State funds for CC this fiscal year are a little more than $61,000 above the level in fiscal year 1998, but the college is still far below the funding it had in 2002.

“We have never recovered from the budget cuts in 2003,” Shelton said.

It was then that state legislators partially dealt with a state revenue shortfall by making sharp cuts in state services including cutting direct funding for Clarendon College from $2.318 million in fiscal year 2002 to $2.086 million in fiscal year 2003.

But Shelton says the $232,000 cut in direct funding was not the only blow dealt by the Legislature that year.

“When you consider the additional loss of funds for developmental education, employee benefits, Texas grants, and prison education programs, the total comes to nearly three-quarters of a million dollars,” he said.

While funding has been cut and then flat lined, demand for CC’s services has gone up. College officials say enrollment has gone up 9.2 percent since the fall of 2004 and increased by 47.5 percent since 1998.

Shelton said it’s too soon to know what the chances are of receiving more funding for CC, but he is optimistic.

“I think there is a very positive outlook toward helping community colleges in Austin,” he said.

In other college business last week, regents discussed and agreed to move forward with an agreement to hold joint elections with Clarendon ISD, the City of Clarendon, and the Donley County Hospital District; and the board accepted the resignation of Interim Dean of Students Angie Robinson, who has taken a job with Frank Phillips College.