Monthly Archives: January 2014

Obama Signs Appropriations Legislation.

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Earlier this year President Obama signed into law the omnibus appropriations bills for FY14.  The bill increased funding for the U.S. Department of Education by $1.6 billion over FY13.

While the increase did not fully restore the reductions in discretionary funding from sequestration, the budget does provide much needed investments for the entire education continuum.

Specific to higher education the act provides $75 million for the First in the World initiative aimed at college access and affordability.

The President will release a summary of his FY 2015 budget proposal on March 4.

Washington Senate Passes DREAM Act

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This afternoon the Washington Senate passed the Real Hope Act (SB 6523) with a vote of 35-10.

The bill would allow students to be eligible for the State Need Grant program if they met the following criteria:

  • Completed the full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma at a Washington public or private high school, or received the equivalent of a diploma;
  • Lived in Washington for at least three years immediately prior to receiving the diploma or its equivalent;
  • Continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma or its equivalent and until being admitted to a public institution of higher education; and
  • Provided to the institution an affidavit indicating that the individual will file an application to become a permanent resident at the earliest opportunity the individual is eligible to do so and a willingness to engage in other activities necessary to acquire citizenship.

Or

  • Granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) Status;
  • Completed the full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma at a Washington public or private high school, or received the equivalent of a diploma;
  • Lived in Washington for at least three years immediately prior to receiving the diploma or its equivalent; and
  • Continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma orits equivalent and until
    being admitted to a public institution of higher education.

The bill now goes to the House for consideration.

House Higher Education Committee Closes Week with Public Hearings

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Bright and early this morning the House Higher Education Committee held public hearings on a range of bills that focus on funding for higher education, affordability and access.

The Committee kicked off the morning with a hearing on legislation that would adopt the goals put forward by the Washington Student Achievement Council (WASAC) (HB 2626) and heard legislation to implement a performance funding framework for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions (HB 2653).

Among the bills taken up by the Committee this morning was legislation that would move Washington forward to implement a voluntary Pay-It-Forward model for students at five high schools selected by WASAC (HB 2720). Evergreen, Washington State University (WSU), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) expressed concerns about the proposal with regard to the impact on student debt and access. Evergreen and WSU encouraged legislators to focus on fully funding the existing financial aid programs and investing in the institutions to offset increases in tuition. The Economic Opportunity Institute and a citizen testified in support.

The Committee closed the meeting with the passage of three bills. House Bill 2429 would create the Washington Advance Higher Education Loan Pilot Program, House Bill 2396 would require WASAC to conduct an analysis of Washington’s Running Start Program, and House Bill 2486 would eliminate the current statute that prohibits the Department of Corrections from paying for post-secondary education and would authorize the DOC to implement post-secondary education programs within existing funds.

Washington Senate Majority Coalition Caucus Introduces Real Hope Act (a.k.a. DREAM Act

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This afternoon the Washington Senate Majority Coalition Caucus held a press conference to announce the introduction of the Real Hope Act (SB 6523). The bill could go to the Senate floor as early as Friday.

The bill would allow students to be eligible for the State Need Grant program if they met the following criteria:

  • Completed the full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma at a Washington public or private high school, or received the equivalent of a diploma;
  • Lived in Washington for at least three years immediately prior to receiving the diploma or its equivalent;
  • Continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma or its equivalent and until being admitted to a public institution of higher education; and
  • Provided to the institution an affidavit indicating that the individual will file an application to become a permanent resident at the earliest opportunity the individual is eligible to do so and a willingness to engage in other activities necessary to acquire citizenship.

Or

  • Granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) Status;
  • Completed the full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma at a Washington public or private high school, or received the equivalent of a diploma;
  • Lived in Washington for at least three years immediately prior to receiving the diploma or its equivalent; and
  • Continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma orits equivalent and until
    being admitted to a public institution of higher education.

The bill mirrors similar legislation passed by the Washington House on the first day of session with a strong bipartisan vote.

 

Senate Higher Education Committee Wears Many Hats this Afternoon

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The Senate Higher Education Committee convened this rainy afternoon on The Hill. The Committee opened with a public hearing on two conferees to the boards of higher education institutions. Chair Bailey welcomed Fred Goldberg a member of The Evergreen State College Board of Trustees and Claire Grace a member of the Higher Education Facilities Authority. Goldberg and Grace were asked to share with the committee their background and bios and to express why they are interested in serving on the Board they were appointed. In addition, both were asked to respond to their goals and hopes as Board members.

Following the public hearing with gubernatorial appointments, the Committee conducted a work session to gain a better understanding of the cost of attendance and financial aid options at a research university, regional university, community college, and private university as well a student loans. The Committee heard from a variety of institutions with regard to their student demographics, their mission, and their financial aid policies. The University of Washington and Eastern Washington University presented from the public baccalaureate sector.
The Committee closed the meeting with a public hearing on legislation that would require institutions of higher education to provide certain financial aid information to admitted and prospective students (SB 6358). All of the public baccalaureate institutions and the majority of community and technical colleges already provide students with this information. The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and the Washington Student Achievement Council testified in support.

House Higher Education Moves Bills to Next Step

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This afternoon the House Higher Education Committee took action on a handful of bills. The Committee moved legislation, ranging from a review of institutional higher education policies related to dual credit coursework to authorizing an increase in the total outstanding indebtedness of the higher education facilities authority.

Following the executive session, the Committee held two public hearings. The Committee heard testimony from the public baccalaureates regarding the institution’s efficiency legislation. The bill (HB 2613) would make changes to business practices resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions. Among the changes proposed is permissive authority to prorate paychecks for faculty on nine-month appointments, to change payroll frequency from semi-monthly to biweekly and changes to existing reporting requirements. Some concern was expressed by the Council of Presidents about additional language that was added to the bill, beyond the efficiencies identified by the institutions, that may actually increase the workload and require additional resources to implement.

The Committee also held a public hearing on legislation that would “clean-up” higher education related statutes by removing obsolete statutes and making technical corrections to existing statutes (HB 2546).

The Committee is scheduled for additional public hearings and executive sessions on Friday.

Governor Inslee Releases Plan for Basic Education

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Yesterday Governor Inslee released his plan to raise money for K-12 schools to respond to the Washington State Supreme Court decision to fund basic education.

The heart of Governor Inslee’s plan focuses on closing seven tax exemptions to provide for $200 million additional funds to support basic education.

The plan would target the additional funds towards two specific areas within basic education:

  • Support for well-equipped classrooms. The funds would be used to ensure classrooms are properly equipped with materials, supplies, and curricula.
  • Restoration of voter-mandated teacher cost-of-living salary increases (I-732).

The funds would come from closing seven tax exemptions that the Governor proposed to close in 2013. The plan would repeal or refund:

  • Use-tax exemption for extracted fuel (except hog fuel);
  • Sales tax exemption on bottled water;
  • State portion of sales tax to nonresidents;
  • Used-car trade-ins worth more than $10,000;
  • Public-utility tax deduction for the in-state share of interstate transportation;
  • Sales tax exemption for  janitorial services; and
  • Preferential business and occupation tax rate for resellers of prescription drugs.

The Governor’s plan will now go to the Legislature for consideration.

Higher Education Committees Hold Public Hearings; Move Legislation

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Today marked the first full day of public hearings in both the Senate and House Higher Education Committees. With the first deadline of the session nearing next week, both committees focused on public hearings and executive sessions to move bills through to the next step.

The deadline for policy bills in the House is next Wednesday followed by a deadline on Friday for the Senate.

This morning the House Higher Education Committee held several public hearings. The bills ranged from legislation focused on the promotion of mentoring and service learning (HB 2400) to changing provisions with regards to the opportunity scholarship (HB 2612)

Evergreen testified with concerns on legislation that would direct the Education Research and Data Center to publish employment and earnings data on its website for higher education program completers (HB 2443).  Evergreen shared support for conversations that  recognized the role of higher education in post-graduate success of students, but questioned the use of employment and wage data as the best metrics by which to measure institutional success. Many factors influence a graduate’s earning and employment that are beyond the control of the institution. Instead Evergreen proposed that degree attainment be the focus because there is a primary responsible by institutions to move students through to degree and connect students while they are attending a college/university to internship, mentoring, and advising opportunities to make the link between their academic studies and future employment.

The University of Washington also expressed concerns with regard to data definitions and proposed including data that extended beyond five years post-graduation as suggested in the bill. Evergreen concurred with these concerns. The State Board of Community Colleges also testified with concerns.

Evergreen also signed in as a member of the Council of Presidents in support of legislation that would address the implementation of inmate postsecondary education degree programs to reduce recidivism (HB 2486).

In the afternoon the Senate Higher Education Committee held a public hearing on the public baccalaureate’s efficiency legislation (SB 6362). This bill would make changes to business practices resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions. Among the changes proposed is permissive authority to prorate paychecks for faculty on nine-month appointments, to change payroll frequency from semi-monthly to biweekly and changes to existing reporting requirements.

Evergreen signed-in support of this legislation.

The Committee also held an executive session in which several gubernatorial appointments were moved from committee to the full Senate for confirmation. However the Committee did take action on legislation to establish an incentive funding framework for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions (SB 6042). The Council of Presidents testified on this bill earlier in the session citing support for performance funding and general support for the bill with the caveat that additional conversations with the institution was necessary to identify further details with regard to distribution of funds and metrics.

Both Committee are expected to continue their work on legislation the rest of this week.

 

Institutions Present on Incentive Funding in the Senate

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Performance funding also known as incentive funding was the focus of the Senate Higher Education Committee this afternoon. The Committee held a work session on efforts in the two-year and public, four-year sectors and a public hearing on legislation that would implement a framework for the public baccalaureate sector.

Work Session

This afternoon Evergreen presented before the Senate Higher Education Committee. In a focused presentation before the Committee, John Carmichael, Deputy to the President and member of the Technical Incentive Funding Model Task Force and Laura Coghlan, Director of Institutional Research and Assessment addressed the question posed by the Committee –  How will each institution respond to the goals identified in the public baccalaureate incentive funding model proposal?

In December the Office of Financial Management released a report from the Technical Incentive Funding  Model Task Force. The Task Force was established in the 2013-15 biennial budget to propose an incentive funding model for the four-year institutions of higher education.

The Task Force identified three statewide goals for the public baccalaureate institutions in the report: (1) Increase overall degree production, (2) Increase degree production in STEM/high demand areas, and (3) Increase degree production for students from underrepresented groups.

In the presentation Evergreen spoke to how the College and its mission would strive to play a role in moving the public baccalaureate sector forward within the context of these three goals.  Evergreen highlighted the College’s strengths recognizing that the institution make a strong contribution to the state in the areas of efficient degree production, STEM/High Demand degrees, and degree attainment for underrepresented students.

Within this context, Evergreen recognizes that the College could make additional contributions to the statewide goals identified in the report with additional resources.

In particular, Evergreen identified improvement in the areas of general degree production through investments in retention initiatives; STEM/High Demand degree production through investments in faculty and financial aid; and attainment of underrepresented students through investments in targeted outreach and support for underrepresented minority, non-traditional age, and veterans.

Public Hearing

The Committee also held a public hearing on legislation that would place into statute a performance funding framework for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions.

Senate Bill 6042 would create an incentive funding structure to encourage student success in Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions and provide a funding enhancement of $25 million each fiscal year based on institutional performance towards three statewide goals: (1) the number of degrees produced, (2) number of high demand degrees produced, and (3) number of degrees awarded to underrepresented students.

The Council of Presidents testified in support of a performance funding framework and in the general framework put forward in the bill. However the Council indicated additional conversations were necessary about the specific implementation of the framework.

Evergreen Presents on Legislative Enhancement

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This afternoon Evergreen presented before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education regarding the legislative enhancement the College received for additional institutional support. In particular, Steve Trotter, Executive Director for Operational Budget and Planning and Julie Garver, Director for Governmental Relations presented on how much the College received and how the College has or plans to spend the funds in the 2013-15 biennium.

Evergreen received $2.899 million for additional institutional support above a fully funded maintenance level for the 2013-15 biennium. Recognizing reductions to support the Governor’s Lean Program and in the area of IT savings, the total funds available to the college was $2.861 million.

The funds appropriated to Evergreen increased state funding levels for the College and reduced the burden on students and families. The largest impact to students and families was the implementation of a tuition freeze for both academic years of the biennium. In addition Evergreen used these additional resource to enhance student, faculty and staff recruitment, retention and success initiatives  and to improve the institution’s basic IT and business services.

Evergreen was joined by colleagues from the other public baccalaureate institutions in presenting on this information.