Meeting the need for registered nurses in Central Texas was becoming more and more difficult as the region’s population continued its remarkable growth. Stephanie Berman, a single mother of three residing in Round Rock, completed the requirements for an associate’s degree in nursing from Austin Community College and subsequently moved into a baccalaureate degree program through the University of Texas at Arlington’s distance learning program. Berman completed her bachelor’s degree that way but also came away with $26,000 in student debt. Remaining at ACC “would have been great.” Tuition and fees added up to a manageable $5,100, but in Texas, community colleges were not permitted to offer junior and senior upper-level courses, thus preventing students like Stephanie from taking them and becoming better qualified to care for sick and injured patients.
At least one possible solution for this dilemma was at hand for meeting the growing demand for highly trained nurses, and that was to allow community colleges, at least those that could satisfy legislators and overseers like Sen. Kel Seliger, a Republican from Amarillo who chaired the Higher Education Committee and authored legislation that authorized community colleges to offer upper-division courses. Other legislators, however, and those who were leaders in higher education were concerned about allowing community colleges to expand their offerings into the states’ junior- and -so-called “mission creep.” A pilot program already in operation allowed three Texas junior/community colleges, Midland, College, Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, and South Texas College in McAllen to grant limited baccalaureate degrees, and ACC’s leaders wished to follow in those footsteps.
Ralph K. M. Haurwitz, May 19, 2017, the Austin American-Statesman, p. A13