Texas community colleges showing small signs of recovery after enrollment decline, report finds

By Sneha Dey, The Texas Tribune
July 7, 2026

Texas community colleges have struggled with enrollment over the past 15 years as many high school graduates opted to go straight into the workforce, but a new report points to signs of the campuses pivoting to stay relevant.

More students are graduating from Texas high schools, yet the state’s junior college enrollment hasn’t kept pace with that growth. Along with those choosing the workforce, students are increasingly going to colleges out of state, researchers with the Federal Reserve of Dallas found.

Texas community colleges have made small but steady gains in enrollment since the pandemic, signaling some success with recovery, their report found. Now the state has about 700,000 students enrolled in those schools, which is still down from about 750,000 students 15 years ago, according to state data.

In recent years, administrators have dramatically expanded dual credit offerings that allow teens to take courses at the community college that also count toward their high school diploma. They’ve also increasingly offered short-term credentials that can appeal to young people who want some training but are not in a position to get an associate’s degree.

“Amid the declining two-year enrollment, student outcomes have improved substantially,” the researchers wrote. “This suggests that the higher education landscape is evolving rather than deteriorating, despite national surveys suggesting growing skepticism about the value of higher education among younger Americans.”

The researchers looked at data from the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the National Student Clearinghouse, and the Texas Workforce Commission to examine the choices students made about postsecondary education. The report was released last month.

Community college enrollment started to stagnate in 2010 and then saw a dramatic drop off in 2019 when the state experienced a job boom, the researchers noted. The construction industry, for example, created about 50,000 new jobs that year to respond to the demand for housing, offices and warehouses.

“If the opportunity cost of attending college increases, meaning alternatives to higher education such as working are relatively more attractive, more students will opt out,” the researchers wrote.

Then the colleges again took a hit during the pandemic, when they lost 1 in 10 students.

The schools are especially affected by a decades-long pattern where college enrollment drops when unemployment is low.

For example, researchers found that fewer Texans enrolled in college in 2008 in counties that are dominated by the oil and gas industry and benefited from a shale boom. Job prospects in oil and gas appeared strong at the time, the researchers wrote.

Texas overhauled its funding for community colleges in 2023 to reward institutions on student outcomes, rather than enrollment. Administrators said that was a lifeline for some small and rural colleges that have a smaller tax base than their urban peers. The new funding model also provides dollars for their non-degree offerings such as workforce training.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.