Education Opportunities Committee Meeting Summary - August 18, 2026
Education Opportunities Committee Meeting Summary
August 18, 2026, from 10:15 a.m. to 11:28 a.m. The Education Opportunities Committee convened with quorum. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jillian Jordan, representing City Education Partners, announced the launch of the San Antonio School Quality Explorer, an interactive tool that aggregates Texas A-F accountability data to help stakeholders understand school performance over time and across districts. She expressed hope that the tool would support the committee's work on opportunity youth and education outcomes.
Discussion Items
- Opportunity Youth Visualization Prototype: Alice Lupin presented a mapping tool that overlays the geographic distribution of opportunity youth (ages 16-24 disconnected from work and school) with data from city programs serving this population. Key statistics: 36,000 opportunity youth in Bexar County; 2,411 individuals were served across six programs (Teen Club, Next Level, Healy Murphy, YWCA, municipal courts re-enrollment, Ready to Work), though duplication may exist. Councilmembers discussed the need for outcome tracking over time, finer geographic resolution (census tracts), and integration with other city investments (e.g., parks, public safety, delegate agencies). The committee decided to pivot to a kinder readiness visualization next, with a preliminary meeting to define desired outcomes before presenting data.
- Workforce Pell Overview: Priscilla Camacho, Chief Legislative Officer for Alamo Colleges, explained the new Workforce Pell Grant program, a component of federal Pell Grants for short-term workforce programs (8-14 weeks, 150-599 clock hours). Eligibility requires programs to be stackable, aligned with high-wage/in-demand occupations, and have 70% completion and job placement rates. Alamo Colleges submitted a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) program for approval, which is awaiting Department of Education designation. Camacho noted challenges: restrictive program duration, exclusion of low-wage but high-societal-value fields (e.g., early childhood education), and antiquated state data systems. Councilmembers expressed interest in leveraging Workforce Pell to supplement Ready to Work funding and advocated for federal and state policy changes.
Key Outcomes
- Approved the minutes of the previous meeting.
- Directed staff to prepare a framework for desired outcomes for the kinder readiness visualization before the next committee meeting.
- Staff will continue refining the opportunity youth visualization tool, including exploring additional layers such as public amenities and delegate agency data.
- The committee will coordinate with the Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) team and other entities to advocate for adjustments to Workforce Pell eligibility criteria, including reducing the minimum program duration and expanding lifetime Pell eligibility limits.
Meeting Transcript
All right. The time is now 10 15 a.m. on August 18th, 2026, and we will officially start the Education Opportunities Committee meeting. And I'll quickly please call the roll. Councilmember Corps. Councilmember Maki Rodriguez. Councilmember Mungia. Councilmember Castillo. Chair Galvan. Here. Sir, we have a quorum. Thank you so much. First things first, we're going to get approval for the minutes of the last meeting. Second. All those in favor? Aye. All right. Going into any public comment today. One person. Great. You're good. Perfect. Come on up. You have three minutes. Thank you for waiting. Good. Good afternoon. Good morning. Good morning, Council members. It's great to see all of you. I'm Jillian Jordan with City Education Partners. I know you're discussing opportunity youth today, data specifically, and how visual visualization can help our community better understand and act on that information. I wanted to make sure that you're aware of a resource we recently released with a similar goal for San Antonio's K through 12 landscape. Yesterday we launched the San Antonio School Quality Explorer, a new interactive tool that makes school quality data easier to access, understand, and explore. It brings the state's latest A through F accountability data into one place. It allows users to look beyond a single letter grade to see how schools in our city are performing over time across systems and within different parts of our city, including your own districts. That matters to the broader conversation happening here today. The outcomes we see for young people are directly connected to how schools are performing over time, and connected to the educational experiences and opportunities available to them. We provided a QR code, I'll pass that shortly that will take you directly to the explorer. We hope you and your teams will spend time with data. I'll save some more findings for tomorrow when our team plans to be back before the full council to share more about the momentum we're seeing across San Antonio. Examples that demonstrate straight school turnaround is possible and where significant work remains. Our goal is for this data not just to be published, but to be useful to both you and the constituents that you serve. As this committee continues its work to better understand and respond to the opportunities and challenges facing our young people, City Education Partners looks forward to being a partner and resource in that work. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you so much. Really appreciate the comments and very excited to look at that data and see how we can make sure we collaborate in some way. Thank you so much. All right.
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