Starr County rural technology center gets $3.5 million

AUSTIN — The Legislature is spending $3.5 million so South Texas College can build a technology center in Starr County that offers Internet access to the community and high-technology courses to students. The rural technology center is expected to make it easier for Starr County students to earn more of their degrees, perhaps their entire degree in some fields, without traveling to the McAllen campus, said STC President Shirley Reed. STC would enter into agreements with local school districts to allow high school students to take courses for college credit, she said. The center would also bring needed Internet access to families that otherwise go without and offer non-credit courses for residents and business owners in subjects like computer literacy, Reed said. Distance-learning courses, the fastest-growing segment of STC, would be more accessible to Starr County students, many of whom do not have computers in their homes, Reed said. “We’re addressing the digital divide, and I don’t know that it’s greater anyplace than it is in Starr County,” Reed said. House Bill 2235 by state Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, directs the Office of Rural Community Affairs to set up a grant program to pay for technology centers in counties of 125,000 or fewer people. In the budget, lawmakers said they specifically want a $3.5 million grant to go to Starr County. Another $1.5 million grant was designated to build a similar center in Zapata County. State Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, D-Palmview, said he worked for seven years to fund the center before the Legislature agreed this spring. He hopes the center will improve training and bring jobs to an area with some of the highest high-school dropout rates in the state. “They have a young population that is responsible, that is eager, that is loyal,” Flores said. “With this, we hope to create economic opportunity.” ORCA has yet to make the rules for the grant program, and Reed said she thinks it will be at least a year before the college can begin drafting plans with an architect. Reed expects to spend about $3 million on the building and reserve another $500,000 to buy technology, she said. STC will pay to operate the center, but leaders there have not developed an operating budget, she said. The center would be about 22,000 square feet and would include classrooms with Internet connections. Labs would be equipped to teach computer aided drafting, graphic arts, network administration, Web page design, telecommunications technology and computer maintenance. Between 10 and 12 percent of the 18,000 students at South Texas College come from Starr County, Reed said. Some commute to McAllen, while the others attend classes at the Starr County campus.