This week marked the first deadline in the 2011 legislative session. All House policy committees must have moved bills either to an appropriations committee or the floor by end of Thursday. The Senate’s first deadline is Monday, February 21.
House Higher Education Committee
This week the House Higher Education Committee passed several bills, including two bills that would impact higher education tuition, financial aid, and accountability policies.
The substitute to House Bill 1795 – Higher Education Opportunity Act – adds statements about the state’s commitment to public funding and provides for tuition-setting authority by four year institutions for all students for four years, academic years 2011 through 2014 with the caveat that if institutions exceed tuition levels as follows: UW, WSU and WWU – 11% per year and TESC, CWU and EWU – 9% per year, they must provide financial aid to middle income students with the express purpose of mitigating the increases in tuition.
The bill also adds the NGA Complete to Compete metrics with the addition of graduate and professional degrees, STEM and participation and completion for underrepresented students in STEM. Finally the bill requires a dashboard be developed on the Office of Financial Management’s website, requires changes in current financial aid criteria, establishes the Baccalaureate Degree Innovation program, and repeals performance agreements.
The Committee also moved HB 1666 which includes the recommendations from the Governor’s Task Force. The substitute that passed out of committee includes several changes to the bill.
The substitute passed out of committee makes several key changes to the funding mechanism in the bill, including changing the the date for increased flexibility for tuition-setting authority for the public baccalaureate institutions to the 2011-2012 academic year rather than the 2013-2014 academic year and changing the operating budget baseline year for funding higher education to fiscal year 2008 rather than 2011.
Senate Higher Education
This week the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Committee passed several bills this week, including the bill that includes the Governor’s Task Force recommendations for higher education and legislation that would alter how higher education is structured in Washington.
Senate Bill 5182 would eliminate the Higher Education Coodinating Board (HECB) and create the Council for Performance and Accountability in Higher Education. The Council membership includes the six four-year institution presidents, one private nonprofit president, the executive director of the SBCTC, and a community or technical college president, or their designees.
The purpose of the council is to develop performance-based measures and goals for each state university, regional university, and the state college, linked to the role, mission, and strategic plan of the institution of higher education including (a) indicators and goals that measure outcomes concerning cost, quality, and timeliness of student progress toward degrees and certifications; (b) benchmarks and goals for long-term degree production, including discrete benchmarks and goals in particular fields of study; (c) the level of resources necessary to meet the performance outcomes, benchmarks, and goals, subject to legislative appropriation; (d) indicators and goals that measure outcomes concerning recruitment, retention, and success of students from diverse, underrepresented communities; and (e) a system of consequences for exceeding or for failing to achieve the goals or benchmarks. In addition the Council would perform the essential state governance functions previously assigned to the HECB.
The bill also creates the Office of Student Financial Assistance (Office) that administers all state and federal financial aid and the advanced college tuition payment program. The Office is under the supervision of the Council.
The Committee also moved SB 5717 which includes the recommendations from the Governor’s Task Force.
The substitute that passed out of committee includes several changes to the bill. The primary change is the elimination of the Washington Pledge Scholarship provisions. In addition the proposed bill adds three new accountability factors; requires institutions of higher education to report enrollments, completion ratios, and market penetration; and requires the HECB to analyze performance data and reports eachinstitution’s performance improvement under the baccalaureate degree incentive program.
Next Steps
Next week the Legislature will focus on the appropriation committees in both chambers (i.e. Senate Ways & Means, House Ways & Mean, and House Education Appropriations). Appropriation committees must move bills out of committee and to the floor by Friday, February 25.
To find out the status of legislation introduced this session be sure to check out either the Washington Legislature’s website or Evergreen’s bill tracking.