Over sixty proposed initiatives have been filed to date with the Office of the Secretary of State.
Each of the proposed initiatives are required to collect at least 241,153 signatures of Washington registered voters no later than 5:00 p.m. July 2, 2010 to be eligible for the 2010 General Election ballot.
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to examine how regional accrediting agencies assess the quality of higher education programs.
At issue was the definition of a credit hour and the perception that agencies are setting too lax a standard on the amount of time students spend on course work to earn academic credit. The Committee discussed whether requiring a minimum definition of a credit hour and/or program length would help prevent institutions from inflating credit hours to reap more tuition and state aid dollars.
The issue of “credit hour” definition initially emerged in audits conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General of three accrediting agencies. In a May report, the Inspector General argued that a regional accrediting agency was not being strict enough when assessing the amount of credit awarded in a course offered by one institution.
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) stated, “I am particularly concerned about institutions inflating credit hours in order to garner more student aid than is justified.”
The ranking Republican on the Committee, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), agreed with Miller with regard to the need to ensure institutions are fulfilling their missions, but expressed concerns about the federal government dictating what constitutes a quality institution of higher education.
The proposed rules being considered by the U.S. Department of Education would define a credit hour as “one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for approximately 15 weeks for one semester or trimester hour of credit”.
The proposed rules also includes an exception to the definition of a credit hour. The exception defines credit hour as “institutionally established reasonable equivalencies for the amount of work required in [the previous definition] for the credit hours awarded, including as represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement.”
If the proposed rules regarding credit hour are put in place, the U.S. Department of Education publicly stated it would closely watch the implementation of the rule and evaluate whether the definition of a credit hour is effective in protecting students and taxpayers.
This morning the Washington Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released the June state revenue and economic forecast. The forecast estimates that Washington will receive $203 million less through June 11 than was forecasted in February.
Washington State Economist Arun Raha stated that the decline in expected state revenue is a result of disappointing employment reports in May and housing data that shows a significant pullback in activity following the expiration of the home buyer’s tax credit. In the end it appears that the recovery for the state will be slow and uneven.
Next week (June 17) the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing to examine how regional accrediting agencies define the “credit hour” as the agencies judge the academic quality and rigor of the institutions they accredit.
The issue of “credit hour” definition emerged in audits conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General of three accrediting agencies. The concern focused on the perception that agencies are setting too lax a standard on the amount of time students spend on course work to earn academic credit.
The U.S. House of Representatives may take up the U.S. Senate recently passed version of a supplemental appropriations bill soon. The move to take up the bill would bypass the more common practice of sending the bill through the committee process to be amended and changed by members.
The Senate’s version of the bill does not include $23 billion in education money intended to avert thousands of teacher layoffs at elementary and secondary schools. Senator Tom Harkin noted that the Senate dropped this language because the 60 votes necessary to pass the provision were not there.
Another difference in the Senate version compared to the House version is the Senate bill does not include the $5.7 billion for Pell Grants in the House bill.
When asked about the differences between the bills, U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, “we’re going to work on it.”
Today, State Representative Mark Ericks (D-North King County/South Snohomish County) announced that he has been nominated by President Obama to be the U.S. Marshal for Western Washington.
Ericks has nearly 30 years of experience with police departments in Bellevue and Bothell. He has served in the Washington House of Representatives since 2005 and was Vice Chair for the House Ways & Means Committee during the 2009-11 biennium.
Ericks’ is one of six U.S. Marshal choices announced by the White House this week. His nomination will require confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
The Washington Office of Financial Managment (OFM) expects that the gap between state revenues and “basic spending pressures” will be approximately $3 billion next biennium.
In a report that provides state agencies, including higher education, with operating budget instructions for the next biennial budget, OFM suggests to provide funding to move current state programs forward, state funds will need to replace nearly $2 billion in federal funds that were made available to Washington during the recession. Part of these funds were used to offset cuts to higher education during the 2009-11 biennium.
In addition, funding requirements for pending funding obligations, statutory requirements to support important reforms in basic education, and restoration of voter approved commitments to reduce class size (I-728) and provide cost of living adjusts for teachers (I-732) add another $2 billion in spending pressures.
Though this adds up to a shortfall of $4 billion, OFM project that new revenues will provide $1 billion to close the gap, leaving $3 billion to be settled by the state.
So one may ask is there any good news.
In the report issued by OFM, indications show that Washington is experiencing much stronger revenue growth of 8.8% for FY 2011. Though this growth is relative to a new, much lower revenue base, it is definitely a positive note when compared to the drop in revenue in the last two years.
As Washington nears the 2011 legislative session more details will come into focus to provide a much clearer picture of the state budget. The next big step in the process will be in mid-June when both the state caseload forecast and economic and revenue forecast are released.
An annual report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released in May signals growing trends in higher education. Highlights of the report imply a drastically different enrollment mix from previous generations. Undergraduate enrollment among women grew by 26% during 2008, compared to a 22% increase among men. The 2008 enrollment mix among genders was 57% female and 43% male. Overall enrollment grew by 43%, and the center predicts that enrollments will continue to grow, from 16.4 million undergraduates in 2008 to 19.0 million in 2019.
Persistence and progress in undergraduate education is difficult to track, according to the report, since students may transfer from 2- to 4-year institutions or among 4-year institutions. However, among those institutions reporting 6-year graduation rates, 57% of students completed degrees within 6 years of first enrolling. Degree attainment and transfer rates were different among public and private baccalaureate institutions, with far fewer (50%) students attaining a degree from the public institution where they started than students at private institutions (65%). However, in both public and private institutions, students who began their studies at doctorate-granting institutions were more likely to earn a degree either from their first institution or overall.
Overall completion rates for 2009 indicated that 31% of 25- to 29-year-olds had completed at least a bachelor’s degree.
Today, the White House asked federal agencies to provide plans to reduce their budgets by 5 percent by eliminating the worst-performing programs. This request is part of the White House’s pledge to freeze spending unrelated to national security over the next three years.
Among the programs to be considered for reductions include several higher education related programs.
At a news conference today, Peter Orsazg, President Obama’s budget director, singled out mathematics and science education, youth mentoring, and job training as potential higher education programs that may be reduced. He noted that the federal government offers more than 110 programs focused on science, technology, and math education (STEM), 100 mentoring programs, and 40 employment programs.
According to Orszag, “this redundancy wastes resources and makes it harder to act on each of these worthy goals.”
Late last week concerns arose about the likelihood that states would receive federal Medicaid match dollars. However, it appears that these federal dollars may still be alive in the Senate.
The Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray reported today that a federal Medicaid match worth $480 million to Washington state has been included in the American Jobs and Closing Tax-Loopholes Act now before the Senate.
This is in stark comparison to the U.S. House of Representatives which passed legislation without language to extend federal Medicaid dollars for six-months, a $23 billion investment.
Washington, along with 30 other states, incorporated federal dollars to assist in offsetting state budget shortfalls. Washington’s 2010 supplemental operating budget anticipated $480 million in additional resources based on the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) enhancement being extended by an additional six months through June 2011.
Without these funds ($480 million) the dollars in reserves ($450 million) planned as a cushion would be eliminated, leaving the state vulnerable to changes in tax revenues.
If the American Jobs and Closing Tax-Loopholes Act passes with the federal funds intact, the bill will have to return to the House for approval.