Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday directed the state’s higher education board to develop recommendations for three-year pathways to bachelor’s degrees. Abbott instructed the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to gather public college officials and faculty leaders, as well as employers and accreditors, into a working group to mull the issue and report back to his office by the year’s end. The governor directed the working group to make recommendations on academic standards, appropriate degrees and occupations, student demand, workforce needs and accreditation requirements for the accelerated degrees, as well as the legislative changes needed to allow them.