The Texas Community College Finance Project

The Texas Community College Finance Project was designed to inform the Texas Commissioner of Higher Education and the Commission on Community College Finance, through data-driven, evidence-based analysis and research regarding the differences in costs to educate student populations with certain characteristics, how economies of scale play into institutional fiscal need, and what other factors explain the variation in the cost of education of students.

The analysis was framed around three key questions regarding the equitable finance of community college education:

1. What determines the characteristics of students in the community college systems of Texas?
2. What are the outcomes experienced by students from the community college systems of Texas?
3. What does it cost to provide those outcomes through the community college system, and how do those costs differ for various programs and for different student populations?