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A community college district is a type of special-purpose district that funds and operates a community college or a network of community colleges.
Community colleges, also called junior colleges, offer course credit transferable to four-year universities as well as vocational and agricultural training.
In Texas, a community college district is an independent unit of local government, also called a political subdivision. This differs from some other states where community colleges are run by county governments or state-administered college systems.
There are about 50 community college districts in Texas. The largest by enrollment are Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio, Austin Community College in the capital region, Houston Community College, Dallas County Community College, and Tarrant County Community College.
Community colleges are open-enrollment, meaning admission is not competitive but generally is open to anyone with a high school diploma or GED. As of Fall 2022, there were 504,427 students enrolled at such colleges, according to the Texas Association of Community Colleges.
Governance of Community College Districts
Community colleges are governed by elected boards of trustees who hire and oversee the president of the college, set policies and an annual budget, and set an annual tax rate.
Each trustee serves a term of six years. Trustees are not paid.
Elections for this position are nonpartisan, meaning there are no party primaries for the position and now indicator of a candidate’s party affiliation on the ballot.
Community College Finance
Community colleges in Texas are funded in three ways:
- local property tax revenue;
- state legislative appropriations; and
- tuition and fees.
The legislature uses a funding formula based partly on enrollment to determine how much funding to give to each college district. In the 2021-2022 biennium, the 87th legislature appropriated $2.17 billion for Texas community colleges.
Each district is required by law to set a property tax rate for the maintenance and operation of district facilities (M&O taxes). They may also levy taxes to finance repayment of bonds issued for capital projects, like constructing buildings and purchasing land (I&S taxes).
Collectively, community college districts raised $2.56 billion in local property tax revenue in fiscal 2023, according to data compiled by the Texas Association of Community Colleges.
