This afternoon the House Ways & Means Committee held a public hearing on legislation that would narrow the scope of work for Washington’s Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) primarily as a result of reductions in funding for the Board.

House Bill 2074 would retain several current functions of the HECB and remove others. Among those duties that are retained with the Board is the administration of the state’s financial aid programs, strategic planning for the state’s higher education system, some functions for collecting and collating data from higher education institutions on their accountability measures, and evaluating the need for various programs based on employer demand, and some other programmatic functions.

The bill would remove several current requirements. These include:  

• Need assessments for proposed major expansions or mission changes of public institutions of higher education, and removes the requirement to assess the need for teacher preparation courses.
  
• The evaluation and recommendation of operating and capital budget requests from the public four-year institutions and the community and technical college system.
  
• The cost study measuring costs of instruction, costs to provide degrees in specific fields, and costs for precollege remediation; and removes the requirement that the HECB determine and transmit approved undergraduate and graduate educational costs to the boards of regents and  trustees of the public institutions of higher education.
  
• Coordination and development of transfer and articulation policies.
  
• Establishment of  minimum college admission standards.