AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation announced that it had created a new website, www.TexasHigherEd.com, to promote goals and specific reforms that will establish Texas as the outright leader in 21st century higher education.

“Texas can be the nation’s leader in higher education reform and provide a home to the best teachers, researchers, and students from around Texas and the nation,” Foundation president Brooke Rollins said. “This ambitious goal, however, requires a fundamental shift in higher education policy that puts students first.”

To support state elected policymakers, university system regents, and campus leaders in reform efforts, the Texas Public Policy Foundation created www.TexasHigherEd.com to provide important information about the cost and quality of higher education in Texas. It attempts to dispel the many myths that prevent our institutions of higher education from becoming the student-focused centers of learning that Texans should all demand.

Last month, the Foundation facilitated the Governor’s Higher Education Summit, an unprecedented dialogue between the regents from Texas’ public university systems and top education reformers from around the country. www.TexasHigherEd.com highlights the goals for improving Texas higher education that were discussed at the Summit:

• Measuring teacher efficiency and effectiveness through student evaluations;
• Requiring evidence of teaching skill for a majority of new tenure appointments;
• Supporting the creation of a new accrediting agency with results based on student learning and workforce readiness versus the number of books in a library or tenured professors with PhD’s;
• Recognizing and rewarding extraordinary teachers;
• Splitting teaching and research budgets to reward exceptional individuals in each area;
• Using “results-based” contracts with students to measure academic quality; and
• Putting state funding directly in the hands of the students through scholarships.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.

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