This week the Senate Higher Education Committee held a series of public hearings on legislation passed by the House. The bills ranged from changing the membership and provisions for the Opportunity Scholarship and its board (HB 1251 & HB 2612) to requiring a review of higher education dual credit coursework policies (HB 2285).

The Committee also heard about legislation (HB 2651) that would require the Washington Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) to include information on revenues and expenditures for each institution of higher education on the public, baccalaureate dashboard.

In addition the Committee heard House Bill 2336 which would require higher education institutions to post via the ERDC department-level budgets within sixty days of an institutions adoption of an annual fiscal budget. Evergreen expressed concerns regarding a proposed substitute to the bill regarding the lack of clarity about the definition of department, unit and division.  The public baccalaureate institutions currently provide budget information at the major activity level on the institutional websites in accordance with legislation passed in 2011.  Evergreen also posts similar information with regard to our allotments and reporting to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).  The College also posts board approved budget policy that recognizes transparency on budgetary changes on the College’s website.