Claims about future culture center raising eyebrows

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A new center stressing Texas heritage and culture is now in the works downtown. Organizers claim it's going to bring a couple thousand jobs and provide a significant economic impact. But some aren't so sure.

The new center is set to be built on Capitol near Minute Maid Park.

The principles of the project have already toured other visitor centers around the country and plan to build one in Houston that could set the bar.

Along with promoting tourism, it will also feature educational components. The economic impact is also ambitious.

Its renderings depict a state-of-the-art visitors center nestled on a downtown street between Minute Maid Park and the George R. Brown Convention Center. The Center for Texas Cultural Heritage will feature 45,000 square feet of exhibits. Two historic homes will be renovated and serve as food and exhibit locations.

It's all designed to pull in what are called heritage and cultural tourists. Some say they'll will spend an extra day in the Houston area when already in town for a convention.

"They are spending will either be $90 a day more, up to close to $300 a day more," said John Nau III with the Center for Texas Cultural Heritage.

In its first 12 months opening, companies overseeing the project say there is potential to create up to $31.4 million in additional tourism revenue and support an additional 2,400 service jobs.

"Hotels, restaurants, gift shops -- those are the jobs, that these heritage tourists will begin to develop," Nau said.

"The reason people do economic impact analysis is that they are trying to justify their project," University of Houston Professor of Economics Steven Craig said.

Craig says it's ambitious to claim a visitors center can generate substantial dollars and jobs.

"Clearly, the $31 million and 2,400 jobs, those are pretty aggressive numbers for the kind of project that this is," Craig said.

One thing it will serve up is stories of the Houston region to kids and adults.

"So that they can experience the events and the people and the places that created Houston and Texas in the region," Nau said.

Of the $40 million project, Nau has already donated $8 million and they hope to raise at least 50 percent of the funds before breaking ground in 2013.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Local children enter 'Future City' competition

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Local middle school students are using their own ideas to build cities of the future.

The students showed off their projects at the Future City competition Saturday.

With an engineer as a mentor, teams of kids designed model cities with computer software and built scale models with recycled materials.

They focused on renewable energy sources and eco-friendly designs.

Winners of the regional competition advance to the national finals in Washington D.C. next month.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Future teachers forced to diversify resumes

 HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The budget crunch has many soon-to-be college graduates rethinking their career plans. With hundreds of teachers being laid off, future teachers are caught in a flooded job market, so they're making changes.

Jobs in teaching have traditionally been plentiful. Normally, students graduating next month would be able to step into a classroom right away and even have options about what school they want to work in. This year is different; the jobs just aren't as plentiful. We wanted to see where the graduates are going and what the alternatives are available to a job market that's shrinking. This isn't what Demetra Gregg thought she'd be doing. A recent TSU graduate, she hoped to be in a classroom, teaching. Instead, she's working on her resume by earning a master's degree. "I'm scared that I won't be able to have a job -- not that I don't have the requirements but because there's just not any money," Gregg said. Gregg's situation is typical of what we found happening to local college graduates. Billions of dollars in state budget cuts to education have meant thousands of local teachers are being laid off. The jobs that used to be so plentiful for graduating teachers just don't exist. "The jobs may not be out there as they used to be, but the more certifications they have, the more training they have, the broader they are in what they offer," TSU education professor Dr. Danita Bailey-Perry said. Be open to out of state hiring, says dr. Perry, and open to teaching alternatives, such charter and private schools. Just down Wheeler Avenue at the UH campus, UH professors say even recent teacher graduates are vulnerable. "I have four in Katy ISD and Katy is really taking a hit financially and they're letting some teachers go and some of the schools have opted to let first- and second-year teachers go," said Dr. Susan Williams, associate professor at the UH College of Education. UH grads are being counseled to do more than drop off a resume. "We've talked to them also about being pragmatic; they might have to take a teacher's aide position for a year and get known at the school," said Melissa Pierson, director of teacher education at UH. That's what Amber Finley is doing. She's a student teacher in the Fort Bend school district. She graduates next month and hasn't been offered a job. Finley and her classmates are nervous, but not giving up. "That's kind of the attitude I'm trying to get toward. If I get something then I'm just happy to have a job because I'm going to be in a classroom teaching kids and that's what matters," Finley said. "I know that is kind of scary that we are losing teachers, but I'm very passionate about this, so if I have to keep looking I will," UH student Izabel Hlayhel said. TSU is planning a teaching summit to help place graduating teachers as well as previous graduates who've been laid off. Meanwhile, both UH and TSU are emphasizing diversity in their student's resumes and a willingness to work outside the public school system. (Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

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