The state of teaching at Texas colleges and universities has been on a downhill slope for some time. With all of the DEI-related classes, and woke nonsense being spewed in the classroom, the value of education in Texas has been slipping away. That has brought along a trend of graduates not being able to find jobs and being sucked down a hole of tremendous debt.
But one Texas lawmaker is doing his part to address the issue. State Senator Mayes Middleton of Galveston is proposing a review of the economic value of university degrees. Senate Bill 757 would also establish a rating system that evaluates program graduates' median student loan debt to median annual earnings ratio.
Senator Middleton says the idea here needs to be more of a focus on outcomes, rather than the money or the DEI.
"At the end of the day, we need to make sure student receiving degrees can actually pay off that debt," he says.
The ratings under this bill would come from most recent data by the Texas Workforce Commission, higher education institutions, and the federal government. Each degree program would be based on post-graduate earnings.
In that, programs with debt-to-earnings ratios of 75 percent or less will be 'reward' programs. Those with ratios above 75 percent, but not exceeding 100 percent, will be dubbed programs to 'monitor.' Programs with ratios over 100 percent would be 'sanction,' and those over 125 percent would be dubbed 'sunset' programs.
But, according to Senator Middleton, the tide is already turning ever so slightly.
"We have seen recently with Texas A&M getting rid of some degrees that were essentially useless...like 'performing social activism in LGBTQ studies,'" he says. "Clearly, those are things that are not outcomes based."
As mentioned, the value of education has brought down the value of the degrees. To the point where people who do not want their kid slammed with progressive ideologies, will just send their kid to either a private school or out of state.
But a review and system like this could help bring the schools value back.
"Schools that are focused on ability to earn a living after graduating with these degrees...and they will be able to do it at a lower cost," says Sen. Middleton.
Only time will tell is this review takes palce, but if it does, it could be a change in the right direction of fixing out state universities. The legislative session ends on June 2nd.