The Politics Underlying the Creation of Community College Service Areas

• In Event: Gaining, Sustaining, and Analyzing Legislative Impact on Postsecondary Education

Abstract

At least 34 states have created service areas or “districts” for each of their community colleges. Little is known about the geographic boundaries of community college districts, the political process that defines them, and how they relate to institutional racial segregation. Given this dearth of knowledge, we study state policy documents and the actual district boundaries of Texas community colleges in order to investigate the larger political process in determining boundaries and whether gerrymandering is present. Laws concerning the formation of these districts vary across states. Still, both the delegation of district creation to governing bodies as well as the misalignment of district and county lines imply the potential for district boundary gerrymandering.

Authors

• Dominique Baker, Southern Methodist University

• Bethany Bradley Edwards, Southern Methodist University

• Spencer Lambert, Southern Methodist University

• Grace Randall, Southern Methodist University