Monthly Archives: February 2010

Senate Policy Committees Continue to Take Action on Bills

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Today Senate Policy Committees were busy moving bills forward before the cut-off deadline on Friday.

Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development

The Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee passed a tuition policy bill for the University of Washington, Washington State University, and Western Washington Univerrsity.

Substitute Senate Bill 6562 allows the board’s of UW, WSU, and WWU to set tuition rates within limits. Tuition (the average annual compounded rate of change of undergraduate tuition fees)at these institutions is not allowed to exceed 9% based on the previous 15 years or 14% in any one year. In addition, the Committee on Higher Education Performance is created and authorized to approve performance agreements for UW, WSU, and WWU. Finally, these institutions must waive full-time tuition/fees for resident undergraduate students based on family and state median family income levels. The waivers are based on a graduated scale based on state median family income and institutional tuition fee rates.

For Evergreen as well as Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, and the community and technical colleges tuition fee setting authority remains the same as current law.

The substitute bill was further amended in committee. The amendments establish a sunset for tuition setting authority for the three institutions in the bill at the end of the 2017-18 academic year; change the title from Relating to higher education finance to Relating to higher education accountability and access; and modifies the Committee on Higher Education Performance to include members from the minority party.

Substitute Senate Bill 6562 passed unanimously out of committee. The bill is now headed to Senate Ways & Means for their consideration.

Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education

The Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education committee took action on an omnibus teacher preparation and K-12 bill. Substitute Senate Bill 6696 includes the following changes related to teacher preparation.

Section 402: Clarifies that community colleges and non-higher education providers can be considered for new providers of the alternative routes. Moves the option for residency teacher preparation programs to provide a summary of procedures providing flexible completion opportunities to section 403 and makes it part of what alternative route providers must include in their application.

Section 403: Removes “higher education” since such institutions will not be the only providers of alternative routes.

Section 409: Clarifies that the service regions for institutions of higher education is for those institutios of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.10.016 (all the 4-year universities and college & the community and technical colleges).

In addition, Substitute Senate Bill 6696 was amended as follows related to teacher preparation: (1) Amends the four-level evaluation system for teachers to use student growth data if available and relevant to the teacher and subject matter. Requires the school districts participating in the pilot of the teacher and principal evaluations to submit all student data to OSP; (2) Amends section 202 by adding a parent representative to the group that will create models for implementing the new teacher and principal evaluation system, student growth tools, professional development programs, and evaluator training for classroom teachers and principals. The parent representative must have certain specified qualities and will be chosen by the PTA using a lottery system; (3) Moves the phrase addressing professional development so that it applies to both closing the achievement gap and STEM; and (4) Amends the evaluation criteria for classroom teachers in section 202 to include collaborating, not just communicating with parents and school community.

House Education Moves Teacher Preparation Legislation Forward

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Yesterday the House Education Committee moved a number of bills Evergreen has tracked related to teacher preparation.

House Bill 3068 passed out of committee with no amendments. HB 3068 provides that, if scholarship funds are available after qualified paraeducators have been accepted, individuals who participated in one of the Recruiting Washington Teachers programs for high school students can participate in the Pipeline for Pareducators conditional scholarship program.

Though Evergreen expressed support for HB 3068 in general the College expressed concerns that the bill would limit access to Retooling Grants to only those individuals who seek math and science endorsements. This would leave out students seeking endorsements in other areas, such as special education and ELL. Evergreen encouraged the committee to reconsider limiting Retooling Grants to only math and science endorsements.

House Bill 3068 will have a public hearing tomorrow, February 4 before House Education Appropriations.

HB 2654 provides that, if scholarship funds are available after qualified paraeducators have been accepted, individuals who participated in one of the Recruiting Washington Teachers programs for high school students can participate in the Pipeline for Pareducators conditional scholarship program.

HB 2654 passed out of committee amended as follows: (1) In the prototypical school funding formula, removes the separate allocation of one Elementary Math Specialist per elementary school, but includes them as a type of “professional development coach” (which is an existing staffing category in the formula); (2) Specifies that the PESB must develop the standards for the new specialty endorsement by July 1, 2011; (3) Revises the description of the role of an Elementary Math Specialist to include not only direct instruction to students, but also serving as a coach by demonstrating best practices to the regularly assigned teacher, using a research-based coaching model; and (4) Makes the standards for the specialty endorsement reflect the coaching role.

Evergreen shared our excitement about the potential prospect of incorporating a track for this training in The Evergreen State College’s M.Ed. program. In addition, Evergreen shared two ways in which HB 2654 could be strengthened. First, Evergreen hopes the Committee will think broadly with regard to the current terminology in the bill, “widely accessible to elementary teachers across the state,” to mean more than online coursework. Second, we encourage legislators to push for more than the “minimum of additional coursework” required in the bill.

House Bill 2852 passed out of committee with no amendments. HB 2852 excludes public and accredited institutions of higher education from laws that regulate providers of online learning in K-12 schools and authorizes school districts to claim basic education funding for students enrolled in college credit-bearing courses offered by these types of higher education institutions. Evergreen did not weigh in on the bill. HB 2852 will have a public hearing before House Education Appropriations tomorrow, February 4.

A substitute bill for House Bill 3059 was passed out of committee. Substitute HB 3059, among other changes,: (1) Clarifies candidates who complete residency program in 2012-13 must take the new assessment, (2) Adds authority for the PESB to contract for the administration of the assessment with a third party, and (3) Requires all public colleges of education that offer a residency certificate who are not already offering an alternative route program to submit a proposal to PESB, does not allow these colleges to submit a “summary of flexible procedures” as an alternative to submitting a proposal. Instead makes this a part of the proposal.

Evergreen expressed concerns regarding the lack of funding that accompanies the requirement to provide a teacher preparation alternative route program and the impact on institutional mission. HB 3059 will have a public hearing before House Education Appropriations tomorrow, February 4.

House Bill 3035 passed out of committee as amended. HB 3035 requires all school districts to establish revised evaluation criteria and a four-level rating system for classroom teachers and principals and specifies minimum criteria for each system. HB 3035 was amended as follows: (1) Directs the Superintendent of Public Instruction to create common, statewide models for the criteria and the rating system, (2) Beginning in 2013-14, requires all school districts to either: a) implement the common statewide models; or b) submit a modified evaluation system to SPI, (3) Requires any modifications to the teacher evaluation system to have been developed through collective bargaining, and (4) Revises one of the minimum criteria for teacher evaluation to be “communicating and collaborating with parents and the school community.”

House Bill 3035 moved to House Ways & Means.

Obama Releases Proposed 2011 Budget – Education Focus

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Early this week President Obama released his proposed budget for 2011. The proposed budget makes a strong statement about the importance of investing in higher education.

The 2011 fiscal year budget request seeks to increase discretionary education spending by $4.5 billion to $50.7 billion and implements many of the student aid changes proposed in the 2010 budget.

The budget:

– Makes Pell Grants an entitlement by funding it entirely with mandatory funds.

– Increases the maximum Pell award by $160 to $5,710 in 2011. After 2011, the maximum award would increase annually by the rate of inflation plus 1 percent.

– Eliminates the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and originates all federal student loans through the Direct Loan Program.

– Expands and redesigns the Perkins Loan Program.

– Funds, over seven years, a College Access and Completion Fund to support innovative strategies to increase the number and percentage of students entering and completing college.

– Invests funds over 10 years for the American Graduation Initiative to invest in promising reforms to raise graduation rates.

– Expands over 10 years income-based repayment.

– Funds over 10 years the American Opportunity Tax Credit to make it permanent.

– Provides level funding for Federal Work-Study, Supplemental Educational Opporuntity Grants, the Federal TRIO Program, and GEAR UP.

– Eliminates funding for the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships (LEAP).

– Eliminates funding for the Byrd Honors Scholarship.

– Allows for the expiration of the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and the National SMART Grant.

– Eliminates the Department of Labor’s Career Pathways Innovation Fund.

– Reduces the budget of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

– Increases funding for several key scientific research agencies for job creation purposes.

– Increases financial support for the AmeriCorps national service program.

House Moves Furlough Bill Forward to the Floor

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Monday evening the House Ways & Means Committee passed Senate Bill 6503 (a.k.a. the furlough bill) out of committee and to the House floor. After four scheduled executive sessions on the bill the committee finally moved the bill forward by a 12-10 vote along party lines.

The bill headed to the House floor for a vote looks different than the bill received from the Senate.

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The subsitute bill includes, but is not limited to, the following:

– An intent section is added stating the Legislature intends that state agencies and institutions of higher education reduce government operating costs through the methods described in the act by $50 million from the General Fund-State and the Education Legacy Account, as well as additional proportionate amounts from other funds.

– The Office of Financial Management (OFM) shall certify to each state agency the compensation reduction amount to be achieved by the executive branch agency or institution.

– Executive branch general government state agencies and higher education institutions may submit plans that achieve compensation cost savings equal to closing the agency for 11 days to the OFM by May 15, 2010.

– Compensation reduction plans submitted by higher education institutions may include leave without pay, temporary layoffs, reductions in force, reduced work hours, and voluntary retirement, separation, and other incentive programs authorized by law. By June 1, 2010, the OFM shall review, approve, and submit the higher education institution plans that achieve the required cost reductions to the legislative fiscal committees. Those institutions that do not have approved plans will close on the 11 dates specified in the amendment.

Senate Bill 6503 now goes to the House floor for a vote. If it passes the House, the bill will return to the Senate for consideration of the amended legislation.

Two Bills Pass Senate Higher Ed

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Senate Bill 5237, allowing institutions in Washington to develop accelerated 3-year baccalaureate programs, and Senate Bill 6409, establishing the Washington Investment in Excellence Account by way of Lottery revenue, received adequate votes to pass out of committee this morning.

Each bill consisted of a proposed substitute, and a fair amount of discussion accompanied SB 6409, which would divert Lottery funds from the K-12 Construction account to be used in support of higher education financial aid, including the State Work Study program. SB 6409 was referred to the Ways & Means Committee, while 5237 was referred to the Rules Committee.