Did anyone else receive a telephone call recently from "Reconnaissance Market Research" to get your opinion on creating a new Brazos County tax district that would finance a new community college operated by Brazos County?

The questions they asked were more like statements and were definitely worded to gain support for creating a new Brazos County tax district.

Why would Brazos County want to get into the community college business?

Got the call last night. While I normally don't answer telephone surveys, I made an exception. And you are correct. The questions were so slanted in favor of the new college that I almost laughed. One would have to be a moron not to see through them and their intent.

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It's about time we had a decent college in this town!

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I thought Vista "College" took care of that.

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Got the call last night. While I normally don't answer telephone surveys, I made an exception. And you are correct. The questions were so slanted in favor of the new college that I almost laughed. One would have to be a moron not to see through them and their intent.

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You would be hard pressed to find any "survey" ,ESPECIALLY those done by governments , that is not written in a completely rigged manner with a 100% guaranteed outcome.
I had the Texas AG ready to file on CyFairISD over their use of $25000 of my money to produce their so called " fact finding" surveys in offer to craft their last damn near Billion Dollar theft , I mean, bond scheme.
The AG personally told me I would win BUT it would take 5 years, cost the state and the filthy ISD tens of thousands and all I would have would be a " shame on you " judgement along with a promise not to do it again lie whilst the ISD thieves are spending the billion dollar bond money they got approved by the .2% micro turnout.
System is horrendously rigged folks!

Wait, what? OMG I hope I get called. If Brazos county has hired a market research team, that expense had to be approved by commissioners, right? Let me dig through minutes & reports to see if I can find it.

My first impression before I get started researching is that it's much more likely that Blinn is behind it - seeing if there's enough support to warrant getting an election to extend their taxable jurisdiction into Brazos.

I'm with you, Ornlu, that Blellis...Rellin...Blellin, (whatever) Campus isn't going to be retrofitted to take on the students for free. Instead of charging just the students that attend Blinn, perhaps someone has seen all the other rates going up and thought 'hey, gimme!' Who knows. Trust, right?!

If Blinn were required to spend money from tuition of Brazos County students in Brazos County instead of spending that money on the much smaller campus in Washington County, we wouldn't be having these discussions.

Yup.

My guess - it wasn't Brazos County that paid for the survey but rather a current college or one looking to come here. They will use the results to show there is "community support" per their unbiased survey.

Alrighty, combed Brazos County's full budget, comprehensive financial report, and monthly expenditure reporting in monthly minutes. This isn't Brazos County, as best I can tell.

That leaves the culprit as Blinn or some sleazy online "university".

I suspect Blinn (w/o evidence) because they have motive. If Raney had gotten his way w/ the legislature, Blinn would have been required to spend the tuition revenue in the county where it had originated - but his bill had a loophole that exempted San Jacinto Community College and South Plains Community College because they have taxing jurisdiction in more than one county. Therefore, Blinn getting taxing jurisdiction in Brazos county will most likely make them immune to whatever Raney comes up with next.

Bump

At last night's candidate forum, Andrew Nelson fessed up to being the chairman of a "steering committee" to see if Brazos County needs another vocational college w/ taxing authority?
http://www.kbtx.com/content/news/Candidates-at-forum-confirm-group-is-seeking-to-bring-new-vocational-college-to-Brazos-County-397391261.html

Does anyone have any info on this? Who formed the committee, who financed it, who's on it, etc?

The committee has all three mayoral candidates on it, so it appears to be a joint effort among the folks in Bryan and College Station. It is my understanding, and I cannot disclose where I heard it, that when asked about a program to provide more vocational training, the president of Blinn said it would take 3-4 years just to get such programs in place, not counting the time to graduation once students are able to enroll.

The folks who are involved with the Bio-corridor expansion and other projects would like well trained employees and feel that timeline is too long to wait. So they are looking for a way to bring in more vocational based training sooner. KBTX did a story about this last night.

Alright, it was the Research Valley Partnership.
http://www.kbtx.com/content/news/Committee-explains-whyitwantstosee-another-vocational-school-in-Brazos-County.html

I find myself pleasantly surprised and satisfied with my local news coverage.