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Education

Education is the foundation for future economic growth. The fast pace of technological change dictates that the local population adapt and attain the skills necessary to attract and retain a wide array of employers and a diverse industrial mix. A well-educated and highly skilled work force is essential for successful competition in the global economy.

Public Education

About 9.4 percent, or more than 435,000 of the state’s public elementary and secondary students, attend school in the Alamo region, which is home to 76 public school districts with 730 campuses, as well as 27 charter districts and their 56 campuses.

The region’s student population has risen steadily in recent years, growing by 12.7 percent from 2001-02 to the 2007-08 school year, for a net gain of nearly 49,000 students. The region’s total population rose by 12.4 percent over the same time period.

During 2007-08, the region’s largest independent school districts by enrollment were Northside ISD in Bexar County, with almost 86,000 students, and North East ISD, also in Bexar County, with nearly 62,000 students. The smallest districts were the Guardian Angel Performance Arts Academy in Bexar County, a charter school with just seven students, and Divide ISD in Kerr County, with 15 students.

Like the rest of the state, the Alamo region has seen its public school population become more Hispanic (Exhibit 42). But the region has a much larger share of Hispanic students than the state as a whole, at 61.4 percent versus 47.2 percent.²

The Alamo region also has seen an increase in its number of economically disadvantaged students. In 2001-02, more than 216,000 of its students, or 56 percent of total enrollment were identified as economically disadvantaged. In 2007-08, more than 249,000 students or 57.3 percent of the region’s students were classified in this way, slightly more than the statewide average of 55.3 percent.

Accountability

The Alamo region’s districts compared favorably with statewide averages in the 2007-08 district accountability ratings established by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The region exceeded the state average for Exemplary ratings, and fell below the statewide average for districts deemed Academically Unacceptable (Exhibit 43).

In August 2008, TEA rated six of the region’s 103 districts as Exemplary; 25 as Recognized; 68 as Academically Acceptable; and two as Academically Unacceptable. Two districts were not rated.

The Alamo region also exceeded statewide averages in its number of campuses rated Academically Acceptable (Exhibit 44). A smaller percentage of its campuses were rated Academically Unacceptable than in the state as a whole.

Of the 786 campuses in the region’s districts, including charter schools, 83 were rated Exemplary; 252 were rated Recognized; 342 were Academically Acceptable; nine were Academically Unacceptable; and 100 were listed as “Not Rated: Other” in 2007-08.

Twenty of the region’s 27 charter districts were rated Academically Acceptable, while three were rated as Recognized and one as Exemplary. One charter district campus was rated Academically Unacceptable and two were “Not Rated: Other” in 2007-08.

In 2008, among the region’s districts that teach all grade levels, Falls City ISD in Karnes County had the highest percentage of students passing all Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests, at 96 percent. Randolph Field ISD in Bexar County had the next largest share, at 91 percent. (An average for the Alamo region is unavailable because TEA reports district data only as percentages.)

Within the region, all graduating students in the Charlotte and Runge ISDs took college entrance exams in the 2007-08 school year, greatly outpacing the statewide average of 68.2 percent. Of the 82 Alamo region districts for which data are available, 23 had participation rates above the state average.

In 2007-08, Alamo Heights ISD had the highest percentage of test takers scoring at or above the criterion score used by TEA to measure college readiness, at 55.6 percent. Across the state, just 27 percent of students who took at least one of the tests scored at or above the criterion score.

In the 2006-07 school year, the most recent year for which dropout data is available, the Alamo region had a dropout rate of 4.2 percent, which was slightly higher than the statewide average of 3.9 percent.

Outcomes

In 2008, 81 percent of Alamo region residents above the age of 25 had a high school diploma, a General Educational Development (GED) certificate or some higher education, slightly above the statewide average of 75.7 percent.³

In the 2006-07 school year, 22,919 students graduated from the region’s public high schools, representing about 9.5 percent of the statewide total for that year. Northside ISD had the largest number of graduates with 4,300, while the Academy of Careers and Technologies in Bexar County and Nordheim ISD in DeWitt County had the smallest number, with just three graduates each.

About 7 percent of the region’s students graduated under the state’s most stringent graduation plan, the Distinguished Achievement plan; 69.1 percent under the Recommended plan, which is the required plan; and 23.8 percent under the Minimum plan, a less stringent graduation plan that requires both parental and school approval, or under an Individual Education Plan offered through Special Education (Exhibit 45).

School Finance

In the 2007-08 school year, the Alamo region’s total school spending per pupil, including debt service, averaged $10,750, about 5.8 percent more than the statewide average of $10,162. Twenty Alamo region districts spent more than 20 percent above the statewide average in that year. Another 59 districts, however, including the region’s charters, spent less per pupil than the statewide average.

Excluding charter districts and districts located on military bases, which do not receive funding from local taxes, the region’s lowest total tax rate in 2007 was that of Divide ISD, at 74.3 cents per $100 of property value. Floresville ISD levied the highest rate at $1.52. The statewide average was $1.19 per $100 of value, and in the region 39 districts exceeded it.

The Alamo region generated a substantially lower share of its school revenue from local taxes (40.8 percent) than the statewide average (45.8 percent). Hunt ISD received the largest portion of its school funding from local taxes (75 percent), while Edgewood ISD had the lowest share (11.3 percent). The region’s share of revenue from other local sources, such as equity transfers and tuition, was marginally lower than the state’s, at 6.5 versus 6.7 percent. The KIPP Aspire Academy gained 35.4 percent of its revenue from these other local sources, for the highest share in the region; Doss Consolidated School District received the lowest share for the region’s non-charter schools, at 1.2 percent.

Edgewood ISD had the lowest property wealth per pupil in 2007, at $75,178, while Divide ISD led the region with $3,155,900 per pupil. The regional average was $294,401, or 11.7 percent lower than the statewide average of $333,420.

The Texas school finance system requires districts with relatively high property wealth per pupil to share it with less-wealthy districts through a process called “equity transfers.” In 2007, 12 districts in the Alamo region transferred roughly $73.3 million, an average of $176 per pupil. Calhoun County ISD transferred the largest total amount ($26.9 million), while Ezzell ISD had the highest per-pupil transfer ($15,938).

Among the non-charter districts, Poteet ISD received the largest share of revenue from the state in 2007, at 71.5 percent. Hunt ISD received the smallest state share, at 9.4 percent. The regional average for 2007-08 was 41.8 percent, higher than the statewide average of 37.8 percent. The region derived a slightly larger share of its school funding from federal aid than the statewide average, at 11 percent versus 9.8 percent statewide.¹⁰

Teachers

In examining teacher salaries across the region, it should be remembered that average salaries vary with length of teacher tenure as well as wage levels. District A, for instance, may have a higher average salary than District B because it has a higher percentage of experienced teachers, even though its wage levels for various years of experience are lower than District B’s.

The average Alamo region teacher salary in 2007-08 was $983 above the statewide average of $46,178. Divide ISD had the highest average salary at $57,869.

Average salaries in the region rose by 14.5 percent from 2002-03 to 2007-08, compared with a statewide average rise of 15.5 percent for the same period. For charter schools, the San Antonio Can High School had the highest increase for this period at 53 percent. Divide ISD had the highest increase for non-charter schools at 30.3 percent.

The region’s teacher salaries accounted for more than 26 percent of total district expenditures from all funds in 2007-08, lower than the statewide average of 30.1 percent. Lighthouse Charter School devoted the highest share of total spending to teacher salaries, at 45.2 percent. Moulton ISD spent the highest share among the non-charter schools, at 42.2 percent. Sixty of the region’s districts devoted a smaller share of expenditures to teacher salaries than the statewide average.

In 2007-08, the Alamo region had a slightly higher number of students per teacher, at 15 versus a statewide average of 14.7. For charter schools, the Guardian Angel Performance Arts Academy had the lowest number of students per teacher, at 4.7. For non-charter schools, Nordheim ISD had the lowest ratio, at 5.6 students per teacher.¹¹

Higher Education

The Alamo region has 16 institutions of higher education, including three university teaching sites and a health science center. Ten of these institutions are in Bexar County; this includes Texas A&M University-San Antonio, which became a stand-alone university in 2009. Six of the region’s 19 counties have higher education campuses or facilities (Exhibit 46).¹²

These campuses include five operated by the Alamo Community College District, called the Alamo Colleges (Exhibit 47).

Enrollment

In fall 2008, 108,057 students enrolled in the Alamo region’s higher public and private universities and colleges. Enrollment in four-year universities and colleges accounted for 45.7 percent of the total, with another 51.5 percent enrolled in the region’s community colleges. The remaining 3,060 students were at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) had 28,413 students enrolled in fall 2008, while 3,174 enrolled at the University of Houston-Victoria (UHV). UTSA’s enrollment has risen by 50.9 percent since fall 2000. Enrollment at UHV jumped by 86.9 percent in the same period, due in large part to expanded program offerings at off-campus locations as well as online. Both greatly exceeded the statewide public university enrollment growth rate of 22.8 percent.

The region’s enrollment in two-year higher education programs rose from 42,823 in 2000 to 55,617 in 2008, a 29.9 percent increase. That pace lagged somewhat behind the statewide two-year enrollment growth rate of 38.2 percent.

In all, the region’s higher education enrollment increased by 31.7 percent (Exhibit 48).²⁵

Accessibility

The University of Texas at San Antonio accepted 82.6 percent of its first-time undergraduate applicants for the fall 2008 semester, more than the statewide average of 74.4 percent. About 13.7 percent of the 10,949 applicants accepted at UTSA were accepted because they were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class, compared to 21.8 percent of accepted applicants statewide.²⁶ The University of Houston-Victoria’s acceptance rates are not reported separately to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Outcomes

Because some degrees require more than four years of study, and because some students may need more time to graduate, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) compares four-year and six-year graduation rates to measure university outcomes. Graduation rates improved significantly between fiscal 1999 and fiscal 2007 at UTSA, with its four-year rate nearly doubling and the six-year rate rising by 5.2 percent (Exhibit 49).

Because many community college students go on to a university to obtain a four-year degree, THECB also compares three-year and six-year graduation rates to measure community college outcomes.

The Alamo Colleges’ three- and six-year graduation rates from fiscal 2000 to fiscal 2007 rose slightly, by 1.7 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively. These rates, however, still lag behind the statewide averages. The Victoria College’s three- and six-year graduation rates, by contrast, were much higher than statewide averages in both 2000 and 2007. Its three- and six-year graduation rates fell between 2000 and 2007, however, by 5.6 percent and 17.1 percent respectively (Exhibit 50).

From fiscal 2000 to 2008, UTSA’s number of degrees awarded rose by nearly 48 percent, to 4,591, while the University of Houston-Victoria, with a much smaller student body, doubled its number of degrees awarded. The statewide average increase was 35 percent (Exhibit 51).

Over the same period, the number of degrees and certificates awarded by all Texas community colleges rose by 49.2 percent. In the Alamo region, The Victoria College, with nearly unchanged enrollment, increased its numbers of degrees and certificates awarded by 3 percent. The Alamo Colleges saw a sharp increase in degrees awarded; at 92.8 percent, their results nearly doubled the statewide growth rate (Exhibit 52).²⁸

Affordability

From 2002-03 to 2008-09, the estimated costs of resident tuition and fees at both public universities in the Alamo region rose sharply, as they generally did statewide. The increase in costs for resident students, however, was not quite as steep at UHV and was higher than average at UTSA. The Alamo region universities’ percent increase in total costs was within less than five percentage points on either side of the state average (Exhibit 53).

At the community college level, tuition and fees at the region’s schools rose between 2002-03 and 2008-09, but less than the $675 statewide average cost hike. The total resident student cost for the 2008-09 academic year was about the same at The Victoria College as for the average Texas community college; the Alamo Colleges’ total costs were higher than the statewide average, although their tuition and fees were about average.²⁹

The cost of the region’s private universities has varied somewhat in comparison to the statewide average. For 2002-03, estimated tuition and fee costs for the region’s private universities were higher than the statewide average and, except at Schreiner University, this was also true in 2008-09. Total costs for a resident student in 2008, however, were lower or roughly the same as the state average, except at Trinity University.³⁰

Funding

The statewide average for public universities’ total revenue, including tuition and fees, general revenue appropriations, federal funds and institutional funds, rose by 15.6 percent from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2008. In the Alamo region, both public universities saw larger rates of increase in revenues, with UHV’s increase more than half again as high at 24.8 percent. UTSA saw its revenues grow by 20.5 percent during the same period (Exhibit 54).³¹

Total state appropriations for community colleges fell in the 2004-05 biennium, as they did for the Alamo region’s community colleges. By the 2008-09 biennium, however, statewide community college appropriations, and the Alamo Colleges’ amount, had recovered the loss. The Victoria College, however, did not have a similar rebound in its appropriations, and from 2002-03 to 2008-09 the college saw a 12.1 percent decrease in state general revenue funding (Exhibit 55).³³

Contact hours – the time a professor actually spends in the classroom with students – for community, state and technical colleges rose by 25.5 percent statewide from fall 2000 to fall 2008. In the Alamo region, contact hours at the Alamo Colleges reflected their increased enrollment, with a 34.1 percent growth rate. The Victoria College had a drop in contact hours over the period (Exhibit 56).³⁴

Educational achievement will play a vital and positive role in the Alamo region’s economic future. Significant increases in enrollment at the majority of the region’s colleges and universities will place new demands on the region’s higher education infrastructure, requiring more instructors to keep pace with student needs.

University of Houston-Victoria

PHOTO: University of Houston-Victoria

Endnotes

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