COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR SAYS TRUST ISSUES DRIVING PROPOSED NEW COMMUNITY COLLEGE

  

The co-chairman of the Brazos County committee calling for a new college to replace Blinn in Bryan says trust and governance issues are driving the movement.

Although his committee is newly formed, Ivan Olson, co-chair of the Talent Initiative Steering Committee of the Research Valley Partnership, says there have been years of distrust of Blinn:

The committee’s drive to gather 15,000 signatures on a petition calling for a new community college district in Brazos County has slowed since the November general election.  Olson says they have gathered over 5000 signatures, and hope to gather another 10,000 in the next 30 days.  10,000 signatures are needed to call an election.

Olson has said in previous news conferences that one option would be to purchase Blinn College’s buildings in Bryan for use by the new school.

The steering committee has sited a lack of workforce education offered by Blinn in Brazos County as one of the major reasons for seeking a new college.  Blinn College’s Director of Communications, Richard Bray, says Blinn’s workforce training job placement rate three-year average exceeds 90-percent, which demonstrates Blinn’s exceptional history of providing Brazos County businesses the highly skilled employees they need to thrive in today’s economy.  Blinn officials have also said they intend to offer 97% of the committee’s requests for job training during the first quarter of 2017.

Olson, however, says the Steering Committee is concerned that that numbers are reflecting surrounding areas and not Bryan/College Station:

Blinn officials have said they struggle to understand why the committee would want Brazos County taxpayers to add to their existing tax burden. Mel Waxler, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Blinn College says it is hard to understand why tax payers would want to “replace an exceptional product that is [currently] being offered tax-free.”

Blinn says a new taxing district’s rate may start at one or two pennies, but could quickly grow in line with the average Texas community college property tax rate of 17.5 cents, which would cost taxpayers more than $260 each year on a $100,000 home.

The steering committee issued a press release today (Wednesday) saying the preliminary results of a survey conducted by Perception Insight indicates a “strong favorability for a ballot measure to create a new community college in Brazos County”. According to the survey, 57 percent of respondents favor a new community college district ballot measure, with 38 percent “strongly favoring” and 19 percent “somewhat favoring” it.

Olson says he believes the tax would be minimal:

The steering committee says volunteers have been circulating the petition at Texas A&M football games, and will also attend community holiday events that will be publicized on the Brazos Talent Initiative’s website.

Blinn College is standing strong in their vow to continue providing “exceptional service” to Brazos County. The college says they will continue to build upon the history of commitment to the Brazos Valley with the college’s planned expansion to the RELLIS Campus and the continued development of new academic transfer and career training programs.

The college says their academic transfer, dual credit, and career training programs clearly have established Blinn as one of the finest community colleges in the state and nation, as evidenced by their “exceptional academic transfer, licensure exam, and placement rates.” In addition, Blinn College contributes in excess of $247.4 million annually in economic benefit to the Brazos County community.