Monthly Archives: February 2014

Appropriation Committee Hears Higher Education Legislation

Posted on by
Reply

This afternoon the Senate Ways & Means Committee held a series of public hearings in a marathon session. The Senate and House face another major deadline tomorrow when all bills before the appropriation committees must have moved to their respective floors for further consideration.

Of the forty-five bills scheduled for a public hearing before Senate Ways & Means the Committee heard three higher education related bills.

The Committee held a public hearing on legislation to implement greater efficiencies for the public, baccalaureate institutions (SB 6362). The legislation 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. The University of Washington and Central Washington University testified on behalf of the public, baccalaureate institutions in favor of the bill.

The Committee also heard about legislation to establish an incentive funding framework for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions (SB 6042). The Council of Presidents (COP) testified on this bill earlier in the session in the Senate Higher Education Committee 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. COP echoed its earlier testimony before the Senate Ways & Means Committee.

Finally the Committee held a public hearing on legislation to require the display of branch campus information on the statewide public four-year dashboard (SB 6482).

Policy Committees Meet Deadline Moves Bills to Next Step

Posted on by
Reply

This afternoon the Senate Higher Education Committee met and took action on several bills. This marks the last committee session prior to the policy cut-off on Friday in the Senate.

The Committee advanced a number of gubernatorial appointments to public, higher education four- and two-year institutions.

In addition the Committee focused considerable amount of time on advancing legislation either to Senate Ways & Means or the Senate floor for further consideration. Among the legislation advanced included requiring the display of branch campus information on the statewide public four-year dashboard (SB 6482) and creating a work group to make recommendations for the continued viability of the college bound scholarship program (SB 6436).

The Committee amended and advanced legislation that would create an eight-member legislative task force to provide recommendations to the Governor and Legislature on establishing a cap  for undergraduate resident tuition by December 1, 2014. (SB 6043). The original bill would have established a cap on undergraduate, resident tuition not to exceed 10% of the most current average annual wage reported by the Washington Employment Security Department (ESD). The average annual wage reported by ESD in 2012 was $51,595.

In addition the Committee advanced legislation to implement greater efficiencies for the public, baccalaureate institutions (SB 6362). The legislation 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.

The focus will now turn to the appropriation committees through early next week followed by several days of floor session.

Senate Higher Education Committee Moves Evergreen Trustees to Floor

Posted on by
Reply

On Tuesday afternoon the Senate Higher Education Committee took action on several gubernatorial appointments to various higher education related boards.

Among those appointments advanced by the Committee was the appointments of Fred Goldberg and Keith Kessler trustees to The Evergreen State College Board of Trustees.

Fred Goldberg is a philanthropist, Army veteran, banker and entrepreneur. He helped found Saltchuk Resources, a global logistics company, currently the largest private company in Washington State.  Recently retired from active management of the company, Fred continues to serve on the Saltchuk board.  As a banker, Fred saw the evolution of the Thurston County State Bank into Puget Sound National Bank and then into Key Bank, serving in various leadership roles throughout the decades.  He currently serves on the board of Columbia Bank.

Fred has deep roots in Olympia, where he operated his family’s third-generation furniture business, volunteered at the Washington State Capital Museum and helped the Panorama City retirement community regain financial stability in the 1990s.

Keith Kessler is a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney with the Hoquiam and Seattle Law Firm of Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Coluccio, representing brain- and spinal cord-injury survivors.  He focuses his practice largely on highway and product safety.  His recent articles have addressed the need for open government.

Keith is a Fellow with the American College of Trial Lawyers, having been selected from among the top 1% of trial attorneys in the United States and Canada. He has served as President of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, President of the invitation-only Damage Attorneys Round Table, and President of the American Board of Trial Advocates, Washington Chapter.  He is a member of the Washington Supreme Court’s Pattern Jury Instructions Committee.

Both appointments now await confirmation by the Senate.

Higher Education Policy Committees Move Legislation as Deadline Nears

Posted on by
Reply

This week marks the first major deadline of the 2014 supplemental session.  The policy committees in the House and Senate, including the House and Senate Higher Education Committees, must move bills forward to either the floor or the appropriations committee to keep them “alive” this session by the close of business on Wednesday. The same is true in the Senate with the deadline this Friday.

It is worth noting that a bill may not move forward by this deadline but may still be active because it is “Necessary to Implement the Budget” or may reappear as part of the budget.

The House Higher Education Committee held a series of public hearings on Tuesday morning. Among the bills taken up by the Committee included an audit of the state universities (HB 2038) and the creation of an Institute for Teaching Excellence (HB 2661).

Evergreen testified with concerns about proposed legislation that would design and implement a program that provides information to high achieving, low-income high school students with the intention of increasing the number of applications from this group four-year institutions of higher education in Washington (HB 2694).  As drafted Evergreen expressed concerns about the inclusion of the term “selective” as it relates to identifying higher education institutions, the stated assumption in the bill that national aptitude tests are predictors of college success, and the need to ensure a broad range of options to identify high achieving students.  Western Washington University also expressed concerns about the bill.

The Committee also moved several bills through to the next step. Among the bills the Committee to action was legislation to concerning mentoring and service learning opportunities in Washington (HB 2400), efficiency legislation for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions (HB 2613), establishing statewide educational attainment goals (HB 2626) and the creation of the Pay It Forward program (HB 2720).

In the afternoon the Senate Higher Education Committee held several public hearings on proposed legislation. Among the bills that the Committee focused its attention on was efforts to expand the display of metric information for the public baccalaureate institutions to include the branch campuses (SB 6482) and to provide a tuition and fee exemption to the children and surviving spouses of certain highway workers (SB 6370).

The Council of Presidents testified against Senate Bill 6043 which would cap tuition for undergraduate residents students so as not to exceed 10% of the most current average annual wage reported by the Washington Employment Security Department (ESD). The average annual wage reported by ESD in 2012 was $51,595.

The Committee also moved several gubernatorial appointments to higher education related boards forward to the Senate Floor for confirmation.