TEXAS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONNECTION INTELLIGENCE REPORT: Community Colleges: Named That Way For a Reason

The Texas Economic Development Connection (TexasEDConnection), a coalition of small and midsized cities and counties and their allies across the state, exists to connect mom-and-pop, startup and entrepreneurial operations with the economic development resources and optimal locations that are just as available to the little guy as they are to the corporate giants.

“Through this program,” the Comptroller’s office explained, “eligible families can apply for state funds to help pay for educational costs such as career and technical education programs, tutoring, private school tuition, home-school expenses and other approved services.”

TEXASEDCONNECTION ORGANIZATIONS

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has informed the Comptroller’s office that participating TEFA students enrolled in a participating private school will receive $10,474 for the 2026–27 school year, or 85% of the statewide average of state and local funding per public school student as required by statute. With $1 billion appropriated by the Legislature, TEFA is expected to launch as the largest first-year school choice program in the nation.

TRUE That
At the next level, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) released preliminary numbers in October showing more than 1.6 million students enrolled this fall at Texas colleges and universities — an all-time high. Growth is highest in the northwestern and upper east regions of the state, both of them seeing increases of more than 9%. The numbers include 2-year public colleges, which saw 776,432 enrolled, outdistancing the 708,669 enrolled at 4-year public universities.

Students matriculate on the first day of classes in August 2025 at Sam Houston State University in Henderson, Texas.

Photo courtesy of SHSU

Many of the institutions welcoming increased enrollment are also welcoming increasing funds thanks to the THECB’s Texas Reskilling and Upskilling through Education (TRUE) Grant Program, which in December awarded $9.9 million in grants to help public higher education institutions create, redesign and expand short-term workforce education and training programs in high-demand occupations. Since its establishment in 2021 by the Texas Legislature, the TRUE Grant program has allocated $91 million in grant funding, with approximately 95% of two-year institutions of higher education in every region of the state having received grants to date.

Among the institutions, programs and amounts in selected TexasEDConnection communities from this latest round:

Grayson College: $500,000, Logistics/Transportation; $800,000, HVAC/Welding (consortium with Vernon College)
Grayson College in Denison is one of five higher education institutions within an hour’s drive of Bonham, represented by Bonham Economic Development Corporation in the Texoma region of the state. The other four are Austin College in Sherman; Texas A&M Commerce; Paris Junior College (another TRUE grant recipient with a total of $470,711 for its criminal justice program); and Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma.

The Grayson College Culinary Arts program, based at the college’s Denison campus, is nationally recognized for cultivating talent and preparing students for in-demand culinary careers, says the school. In addition to Six Ninety One, the restaurant named for the highway leading to Grayson College’s main campus, the school also is home to what it calls one of the finest Viticulture and Enology Programs in the southern United States.

Named after the famed Denisonian horticulturist and viticulturist T.V. Munson, the T.V. Munson Viticulture Enology Center and the T.V. Munson Memorial Vineyard (where 65 varieties of the original Munson root stocks continue to grow) are located near the North Texas Regional Airport – Perrin Field.

“We need more students enrolling and completing a credential that allows them to fully participate in this economy. As a country, as a profession, we devalued vocational education. We need to change hearts and minds.”

— Dr. Wynn Rosser, Texas Commissioner of Higher Education and CEO of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, speaking in October 2025 at a convening of ECMC Foundation career & technical education fellows in Austin

Alamo Community College District: $800,000, Data Science/AI (consortium with San Jacinto College)
The City of Cibolo, represented by City of Cibolo EDC, is served by The Alamo Colleges, a six-campus network serving the San Antonio metro area for the past 80 years. Certification and training programs in fields such as welding, plumbing, IT, aircraft technology and HVAC are offered at Northeast Lakeview College (the closest campus to Cibolo), St. Philip’s College and the Central Texas Technology Center. Private universities located within 30 miles of the city include Texas Lutheran University (TLU), University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), Trinity University and St. Mary’s University. Cibolo also has four prominent universities located within 35 miles: the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), Texas State University, Texas A&M University at San Antonio (TAMUSA) and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA).

Toyota Texas announced a $70,000 donation to the Alamo Colleges Foundation at the grand reopening of its newly renovated Experience Center. The donation will directly support students at Palo Alto College and St. Philip’s College through scholarships and career training programs in STEM-based industries, including the nationally recognized Advanced Manufacturing Technician (AMT) program.

Kilgore College: $473,000, Health Care
Kilgore College is where Texas Commissioner of Higher Education and THECB CEO Dr. Wynn Rosser earned his first higher education credential (an associate degree) before moving on to Texas A&M and then, just three years ago, completing emergency medical technician (EMT) training through the School of EMS and becoming a nationally registered and Texas state-licensed EMT.

“I’m trained to be a helpful bystander,” he told an audience at a convening of career & technical education fellows organized by the ECMC Foundation in Austin in October 2025. “It was a lifelong goal. It gives me some insight into how hard it is to do upskilling and reskilling.”

Kilgore College is also one of the partners — alongside the City of Kilgore, Gregg County, Rusk County and Kilgore Independent School District — that Kilgore Economic Development Corporation says are “integral to KEDC’s efforts and Kilgore’s success.”

The compliment was paid as KEDC in December celebrated the 35th anniversary of its formation, funded by a half-cent sales tax. Over that time, the organization said in a release, industrial property values have grown by 551% to a bit more than $435 million; commercial property values have increased by almost 497% and overall property tax rolls now total more than $1.8 billion, a 386% increase.

Those increases aren’t letting up, as new investment continues to pour in and the cycle of prosperity circles back to schools themselves.

“Over the past three years, Kilgore has achieved the highest levels of capital investment in our history,” KEDC Executive Director Lisa Denton said. “These projects represent more than dollars and square footage — they represent opportunity, jobs for local and regional area residents, stability for families and a stronger tax base that supports our schools, infrastructure and quality of life.”

Kilgore Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Lisa Denton

McLennan Community College: Health Care, $290,079
McLennan is one of five colleges and universities with a total of 75,000 students within a 60-minute drive of Waco, Texas — the others are Baylor University, Texas Tech University, Tarleton State University and Texas State Technical College (TSTC).

There is also a unique asset called The WorkSITE, a collaboration among the City of Waco, McLennan County and Texas State Technical College to provide the courses most needed by Waco employers. Employers in the network include Tractor Supply Co., Mars Wrigley, Howmet Aerospace and AbbVie, with courses in such areas as industrial systems training, construction fundamentals, OSHA compliance and forklift certification. The new $17 million facility opened in February 2025 in Texas Central Park. And there’s nothing like putting your money where your mouth is: Conceived to increase access to customized training and to build a skilled workforce, the project employed 30 local subcontractors, with around 80 TSTC alumni having roles in constructing the building.

City of Gonzales, Texas

Photo: Getty Images

Mike Reeser, TSTC’s chancellor and CEO, said TSTC provides 30% of all building construction graduates in the state, along with 85% of all electrical lineworkers in the state. TSTC’s Aircraft Pilot Training program in December 2025 debuted five new single-engine Piper Pilot 100i airplanes used for student instruction. The program offers an associate degree along with a certificate of completion in Aircraft Pilot Training Unmanned Aerial Vehicle at the Waco campus.

Among other workforce highlights across TexasEDConnection territory:

Bowie Texas Economic Development
Bowie is home to North Central Texas College, the oldest continuously operating two-year college in the State of Texas, which spans six campuses in Bowie, Corinth, Denton, Flower Mound, Gainesville and Graham and a training center at Champions Circle in Fort Worth. The institution offers more than 60 degree and certificate programs, including electrical, HVAC, industrial machining and mechanics.

NCTC recently partnered with US Aviation Academy to offer an FAA-approved Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) maintenance training program at the U.S. Aviation Academy’s campus in Denton. Graduates earn an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree in Aviation Maintenance Technology and are eligible to test for their FAA A&P certification. Opened in 2000, NCTC’s Bowie campus is supported by a half-cent sales tax voted in by the city’s residents.

City of Gonzales
Gonzales ISD residents approved a $19.5 million bond for a new CTE building and ag barn facility. The expanded 31,782-sq.-ft. CTE facility will house programs in auto technology, welding, cosmetology, food science, plant science, animal science, veterinary and health careers, audio-visual technology and more.

“This project is fully funded by the 2023 bond program and interest earned on those funds, minimizing any impact on the district’s operational budget,” explains Daisy Scheske Freeman, economic development and community relations director at Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative (GVEC). “Gonzales is fortunate to already have Victoria College in our community, with Texas State Technical College soon coming to the Seguin area. Additionally, Gonzales is within close proximity to Texas State University, UTSA and UT Austin, creating strong pathways for students pursuing higher education and workforce opportunities. This project is a huge step forward in preparing our students for future careers and supporting local workforce development.”

City of Sanger, Texas
Employment in the City of Sanger is projected to grow by 3% over the next five years. But jobs requiring higher education credentials are growing much faster: Occupations typically requiring a postgraduate degree are expected to grow by 3% per year, says the city, citing Stats America and Census statistics, while those requiring a bachelor’s degree are forecast to grow by 2.9% per year and occupations typically needing a 2-year degree or certificate are expected to grow by 3.1% per year.

Fortunately the city is served by North Central Texas College, whose Gainesville campus is 20 miles north; Texas Woman’s University; and the University of North Texas in Denton, located a mere 12 miles south of Sanger. Dallas-Fort Worth’s largest and most comprehensive university (44,000 students), UNT offers 113 bachelor’s, 94 master’s and 36 doctoral degree programs. Across its Denton and Frisco campuses, UNT students earned more than 13,000 degrees in the most recently tracked academic year.

In November 2025, UNT unveiled its new five-year strategic plan — Look North: UNT 2030 — emphasizing three core priorities: Develop, Discover and Drive. “UNT will focus on developing the potential of its students and community members to meet the needs of the changing economy,” the school said in a release, “discovering new insights and innovations that bridge disciplines to advance Texas’ competitiveness, and driving innovation, partnerships and economic growth to build a better tomorrow.”

Leaders from Central Baptist College (CBC) in Conway, Arkansas, and Jacksonville College in Jacksonville, Texas, met in October at the Arkansas–Texas state line in downtown Texarkana to sign an agreement to create a seamless pathway for students completing associate degrees at Jacksonville College to transfer directly into bachelor’s degree programs at CBC — whether on campus or through CBC’s online programs. Both institutions are ministries of the Baptist Missionary Association

Big Spring Economic Development
Big Spring ISD and area colleges, including Howard College in Big Spring, are invested in the community and aim to produce a highly skilled and educated workforce. In fall 2024 Howard announced the launch of the Open Roads Promise, an innovative program designed to increase access to tuition-free college education for students across rural communities. According to the THECB, only 20% of high school graduates in the area have completed a postsecondary credential or degree required for skilled, high-demand jobs.

Asked about response to the program, Open Roads Promise Coordinator Kallina Villanueva says, “Since its inception in fall 2024, the Open Roads Promise program has demonstrated strong early impact by engaging students across Howard College’s service area and strengthening the college-going pipeline. To date, 483 students have completed an Open Roads Promise pledge, signaling a clear commitment to pursuing postsecondary education through Howard College. The program has expanded awareness of college access opportunities, reduced perceived financial barriers and created a structured pathway that supports students as they transition from high school to college. Open Roads Promise continues to build momentum as an innovative, student-centered initiative focused on access, affordability and long-term success.”

Goals in keeping with the spirit and daily practice of all communities in the TexasEDConnection universe.

Visit texasedconnection.com for more.