Senate Higher Education Committee Wears Many Hats this Afternoon

Posted on January 30, 2014 by jgarver

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

Posted on January 30, 2014 by jgarver

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

Posted on January 29, 2014 by jgarver

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

Posted on January 29, 2014 by jgarver

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

Posted on January 23, 2014 by jgarver

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

Posted on January 22, 2014 by jgarver

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.

House Higher Education Hears from Institutions on Incentive Funding

Posted on January 22, 2014 by jgarver

This afternoon Evergreen presented before the House 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?

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

Evergreen was joined by colleagues from the other public baccalaureate institutions. On Thursday Evergreen will present on the institution’s response to the Task Force model before the Senate Higher Education Committee.

Morning on The Hill Busy for Higher Education

Posted on January 21, 2014 by jgarver

This morning higher education was busy on The Hill with a hearing in House Capital Budget and a work session before the House Higher Education Committee.

House Capital Budget

This morning began early with the House Capital Budget scheduled for a public hearing on Governor Inslee’s proposed 2014 supplemental capital budget.

Evergreen, along with other higher education stakeholders, testified to the impact of the supplemental budget on institutions and students.

Evergreen thanked the Legislature for providing the College with the authority to enter into a certificate of participation, through the Office of the State Treasurer, to purchase the building the College currently leases for Evergreen’s Tacoma program. Evergreen noted that the certificate of participation would allow the College to establish a permanent site for the program, which has been in existence for over 30 years, by redirecting the current lease rate toward the purchase of a permanent location for the program. The impact of this action would be to create equity in an owned existing building and provide Evergreen and its students with certainty with regard to the future of the program, benefiting not only the College but the State.

Evergreen also asked the Committee to work with the College to provide funds to meet a gap in resources to implement a microturbine project on campus. The project which is supported by the Washington Department of Commerce, Evergreen students, and Puget Sound Energy would replace existing failing infrastructure, deploy state of the art technology, generate energy savings, reduce the college’s carbon footprint and provide a great return on investment. The College is asking for $499,000

In mid-December Governor Inslee released his proposed 2014 Supplemental Capital budget.

The Governor provided funding for a small number of projects across higher education. This includes authority for Evergreen to enter into a certificate of participation to purchase the existing facility in Tacoma for the College’s Tacoma program; $2 million to remove, clean and dispose of two underground diesel oil tanks at Central Washington University; and $5 to renovate the Carver Academic Center at Western Washington University.

House Higher Education

The Council of Presidents along with representatives from the Office of Financial Management and the Education Research Data Center presented as a panel on the public, baccalaureate incentive funding model task force.

The panel provided an overview of the proviso language that established the task force in the biennial budget, the data used as the source for the metrics included in the report, and the task force’s eight recommendations if incentive funding (i.e. performance funding) were established in Washington for the public baccalaureate institutions.

The eight recommendations include:

Support “Washington-specific” statewide achievement goals based on college access and completion, which represent the state’s greatest need.
Identify institution-specific metrics based on institutional mission.
Provide new, up-front state performance funding investment in conjunction with the state budget processes.
Establish a simple, on-going system for monitoring and funding institution-specific metrics that aligns with the biennial budgeting process.
Start the timeline for performance funding now and renew on a biennial basis going forward.
Pursue baseline funding objectives through adequate maintenance level funding, institution-level policy investments, and performance incentive funding.
Use increased state funding over time to pursue a 50/50 balance between tuition and state support.
Repeal and replace other statutory statewide performance goals and processes.

The institutions will present on institutional metrics before the House Higher Education Committee tomorrow and in the Senate on Thursday.

Evergreen Presents on Service to Veterans

Posted on January 20, 2014 by jgarver

Serving veterans is a critical component of Evergreen’s outreach. This was the central message relayed by Randy Kelley, Director of the Veterans Resource Center before the Senate Higher Education Committee.

Kelley presented as part of panel focused on the work in Washington to ease the transition from military service to higher education. Kelley joined colleagues from the University of Washington and the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges to share the work at Washington’s public higher education institutions.

Senate Committee Holds Public Hearing on Supplemental Budget

Posted on January 15, 2014 by jgarver

This afternoon the Senate Ways & Means Committee held a public hearing on Governor Inslee’s proposed 2014 supplemental budget.

Evergreen, along with other higher education stakeholders, testified to the impact of the supplemental budget on institutions and students.

Evergreen thanked the Legislature for the investment in higher education in the biennial budget and shared with the Committee Evergreen’s commitment to not increase tuition in either academic year of the biennium. In addition, the College shared its support for the investment in the College Bound program and expressed concern that no investment was made to serve the 32,400 unserved, eligible students in the State Need Grant program.

In mid-December Governor Inslee released his proposed 2014 Supplemental Operating budget.

With regard to higher education, the supplemental budget proposed by Governor Inslee supports the investment made in higher education in the 2013-15 biennial budget and provides a good starting point for budget discussions for the 2015-17 biennium.

The budget makes a handful of investments in higher education including STEM programs for underrepresented students at the community and technical colleges ($410,000) and funds to meet the obligations for the College Bound Scholarship program ($7.2 million). In addition the budget includes funds focused on advanced manufacturing programs and research at the University of Washington and Washington State University ($1 million).

The budget also maintains the ability for public baccalaureate institutions to raise tuition beyond appropriated tuition levels for the 2014-15 academic year. The budget includes clarifying language that underscores the requirement that institutions that raise tuition beyond appropriated levels must mitigate the impact to students with additional financial aid.

Office of Governmental Relations

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