| Vote Recommendation | Economic Freedom | Property Rights | Personal Responsibility | Limited Government | Individual Liberty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Neutral | Neutral | Negative | Negative | Neutral |
Relating to the administration by the Texas Workforce Commission of
a workforce diploma pilot program.
The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined at this time due to the uncertainty of the
number of participating providers.
Texas Action is opposed to HB 2416 on the basis of limited government and personal responsibility. Providing taxpayer subsidized adult education is not the proper role of government. If it is in the interest of workforce development to have a workforce diploma program, private businesses that stand to gain from employing certified individuals can pool resources and create their own training and certification program. Publicly funded education should not be a lifetime entitlement in Texas. The public education system should focus on K-12 and leave adult workforce education to the private sector.
While we maintain our opposition to creating a new taxpayer-funded subsidy program for adult education, we do acknowledge that the approach taken by this legislation is better than some other proposals for similar programs. We particularly endorse the open network approach which allows any diploma-granting entity to participate, and the results-based approach which only disburses funding based on student achievement. This is preferable to funding programs that only allow a narrow scope of qualifying entities to participate or disburse subsidies without accountability for results.