An effort led by Williamson County civic leaders to create a Williamson County community college failed to win the necessary support of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to establish a new school in the greater Austin metro area. Civic pride and the educational/training needs of a rapidly growing Williamson County powered the effort to establish a new community college. Backers of the initiative complained that neither Austin Community College nor Temple Junior College (TJC) was willing or able to provide sufficient academic and industrial training opportunities to attract new businesses to the county. Opponents of the plan for a new college included ACC and TJC, both of whom contended that a new school would cripple their colleges. The Williamson County Taxpayers’ Association also objected to the move because of widespread opposition to another taxing authority. Weak local and national economies further undermined the initiative.
In 1985, a Williamson County citizens steering committee led by Barbara Roy, a round Rock resident, obtained over 5,000 signatures, more than minimally required, on a petition asking the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to authorize a local election to create a new community college district. The coordinating board declined to call an election, due largely to waning support in the Texas Legislature for public community colleges; however, the Coordinating Board ruled that the petitions would remain valid until January of 1988. On January 28, 1988, the Coordinating Board voted not to extend the validity of the petitions further, thus effectively killing a new Williamson County college. The Coordinating Board tried to soften the blow by pointing out that Austin Community College and Temple Junior College would adequately meet the educational and training needs of Williamson County if residents voted to join one or the other of the established community college districts
Members of the steering committee reacted strongly and negatively to the decision. “Needless to say, our reaction is disappointment,’ Roy declared. Roy voiced the feeling of many Round Rock residents who resented liberal Austin’s haughty attitude toward its much smaller neighbor to the the north. Further politicizing the issue, she expressed chagrin that bureaucratic authority, emanating from the Coordinating Board rather than democratic process, was determining the outcome of the Round Rock community college initiative and resentment that tuition and other fees that Williamson County students would continue to pay for ACC and TJC classes might flow out of Williamson County. Some 2,900 residents of Williamson County attended ACC classes, many of them at Westwood High School, Round Rock High School, Leander High School, and ACC’s 620 Oaks facility on Highway 620. Furthermore, plans were being developed for a full-service campus in northwest Austin, close to the Travis/Williamson county lines. Others in Williamson County applauded the Coordinating Board’s decision, noting that a sluggish Central Texas economy would accentuate the tax burden involved in supporting a new Williamson County community college.
Source: Round Rock Leader, February 1, 1988, Hill Country News, February 1, 1988