Howard County Junior College District

Howard County Junior College District, doing business as Howard College, is a state government educational institution and Hispanic Serving Institution that delivers vocational and technical education to federal inmates as a prime contractor, operating under full-and-open procurement with no set-aside designations. Based in Big Spring, Texas, the institution operates under primary NAICS 520800 (Junior Colleges) and has built its federal footprint almost entirely on recurring monthly purchase orders from the Federal Correctional Institution Big Spring, a Bureau of Prisons facility.

The institution's federal customer base is heavily concentrated. The Federal Correctional Institution Big Spring accounts for 38 awards (55% of the recent award count) worth $1.4 million in combined potential value, reflecting a recurring monthly contracting pattern that began in April 2024 and continues through September 2026. The next-largest customer, the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education, accounts for 7 awards; the broader Bureau of Prisons for 4 additional awards; and the Office of Career Technical and Adult Education for 3 awards. All other customer agencies account for fewer than one award each. This customer concentration is extreme — the single FCI Big Spring facility dominates both volume and dollars.

Howard College's contract work with FCI Big Spring consists of monthly firm fixed-price purchase orders for vocational training sessions, each typically valued between $18,000 and $48,000 and covering a single calendar month of instruction. Representative recent examples include a $30,617 purchase order for September fiscal year 2026 vocational training (September 1, 2026 award date), a $28,592 order for June FY26 vocational training (June 1, 2026 award date), and a $39,540 order for October FY25 vocational training (October 1, 2025 award date). The institution has delivered this programming under two parent IDICs: DJBP050300000012 (4 task orders, $322 thousand combined potential value) and J50302C110 (1 task order). All FCI Big Spring awards sit on full-and-open procurement with no set-aside.

Beyond its Bureau of Prisons contract work, Howard College operates as a federal grant recipient. The institution holds a five-year project grant from the Office of Postsecondary Education for the Howard College Upward Bound Project (awarded September 1, 2022, ultimate completion date August 31, 2027) and a closed project grant from the Institute of Youth, Family, and Community for the Howard College Veterinary Technician A.A.S. Program (awarded November 1, 2021, ultimate completion date October 31, 2026). The veterinary technician grant funded development of the only such degree program in the West Texas area and targeted sixteen graduate completions with American Veterinary Medical Association certification. Howard College also acts as a sub-recipient on adult education and literacy service provider grants and local performance quality improvement awards from the Texas Workforce Commission, awarded in June 2024 and December 2023 respectively.

Activity volume has accelerated in recent years: one award in 2022, one in 2023, nine in 2024, eleven in 2025, and nine year-to-date in 2026, driven entirely by the monthly FCI Big Spring purchase orders. Only two awards carry ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months, creating minimal recompete risk in the near term. The institution competes exclusively as a prime (95% of awards are prime contracts or grants) and does not hold seats on government-wide vehicles or multiple-award schedules; its federal footprint is entirely transactional, month-to-month work with a single Bureau of Prisons facility.