Challenge 1:
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Rand Corporation completed a study that revealed the rate of growth in high technology jobs is higher in Texas than in any other state. The state has made a fundamental shift from extractive industries (agriculture, oil and gas) to technology dependent industries.

Challenge 2:
The number of graduates in engineering, computer science, and technology has remained constant over the past decade and the report calls for a doubling of graduates with those degrees by 2012. Without a significant increase in employees educated for high technology careers, the State is at risk of losing its most productive industries.

Challenge 3:
The late Congressman Wright Patman, from the First District of Texas, told Congress in 1950 that his district’s average income was 70% of the entire state's average. Local high school graduating students who consistently beat state averages on standardized achievement tests, are earning bachelor degrees at approximately 70% of the state average because of a lack of regional higher education opportunities. It is no coincidence that our average income today remains at approximately 70% of the state mean.

These educational challenges are the reasons why Ross Perot, Truman and Anita Arnold, the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Texarkana, and others have announced their enthusiastic support for the new College of Engineering and Information Sciences at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.

As revealed in the data collected, not only are high tech fields rapidly growing, but they are also generating high income jobs. The implementation of the programs would attract new industry as well as raise the income level of the region.

This is the first step in fundamentally changing the economic future of our region. We must have your help to make this a reality!