Tag Archives: higher education

Funding Model Task Force To Meet Next Week

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The Technical Incentive Funding Model Task Force established by the Legislature in the 2013-15 biennial operating budget will begin its work next week in Seattle.

Focused on the four-year, public higher education sector the Task Force will focus on developing an incentive funding model to provide new incentives for Washington’s public baccalaureate sector that demonstrate improvement in existing performance measures and control resident undergraduate tuition growth.

The focus of the first of five meetings will be to set the context for this discussion. Among the key questions that will drive the conversation are:

  • What’s the role for public four-year institutions in Washington?
  • What are the changes facing these institutions?
  • What is the role of performance funding within this context?

Student Loan Interest Bill Passes House Heads to President’s Desk

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This week the U.S. House of Representatives passed student loan interest rate legislation. The bill now heads to the President who is expected to sign it into law.

The legislation will tie interest rates on federal student loans to the market and, at least in the short term, forestall hefty increases that were to hit new borrowers beginning this fall.

The legislation passed the House of Representatives by a wide margin (392-31, with 10 abstentions) after originating in the Senate, which approved it last week. The measure, when signed by President Obama, will reset interest rates on federally guaranteed loans each July based on the previous May’s auction of 10-year Treasury bills. Undergraduate loans — those that are federally subsidized as well as those that are not — would be set at the Treasury rate plus 2.05 percentage points, while loans for graduate students would be set at 3.6 points above the Treasury rate, and loans for parents at 4.6 percentage points over the T-bill rate. The maximum rate would be capped at 8.25 percent for undergraduate loans, 9.5 percent for graduate student loans, and 10.5 percent for parent loans.

 

U.S. Senate Passes Student Loan Legislation

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Yesterday the  U.S. Senate approved legislation to link interest rates on student loans to the market, which would cut rates in the short term but potentially allow them to rise significantly within a few years.

The vote was 81 to 18.  All but one of the Senate’s “no” votes were from Democrats, Republican Mike Lee of Utah was the one “no” from his party. Many of the Democrats voted for an alternative pushed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed and another proposal that would have sunsetted the proposal before rates were likely to spike.

But with supportive statements issued within minutes of the Senate vote by leading House Republicans  and Rep. George Miller, the senior Democrat on the House education panel, the measure seems sure to pass the House. The White House signaled President Obama’s support early Wednesday, virtually ensuring that it will become law.

Under the legislation, student loan rates would reset each July based on the previous May’s auction of 10-year Treasury bills. Undergraduate loans — those that are federally subsidized as well as those that are not — would be set at the Treasury rate plus 2.05 percentage points, while loans for graduate students would be set at 3.6 points above the Treasury rate, and loans for parents at 4.6 percentage points over the T-bill rate. The maximum rate would be capped at 8.25 percent for undergraduate loans, 9.5 percent for graduate student loans, and 10.5 percent for parent loans.

Because the Treasury rate is low now, the rate on undergraduate loans in the 2014 fiscal year would be 3.86 percent (5.41 percent for graduate students, and 6.41 percent for parents) — well below the 6.8 percent rate that took effect July 1.

Obama to Launch New Aggressive Reform Agenda for Higher Education

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Yesterday in a speech at Knox College in Illinois, President Obama promised to unveil a plan to promote significant reform in higher education. The crux of the plan seems to focus on controlling what colleges charge students.

“[I]n the coming months, I will lay out an aggressive strategy to shake up the system, tackle rising costs, and improve value for middle-class students and their families. It is critical that we make sure that college is affordable for every single American who’s willing to work for it,” said Obama.

“Families and taxpayers can’t just keep paying more and more and more into an undisciplined system where costs just keep on going up and up and up. We’ll never have enough loan money, we’ll never have enough grant money, to keep up with costs that are going up 5, 6, 7 percent a year. We’ve got to get more out of what we pay for,” Obama said.

“Now, some colleges are testing new approaches to shorten the path to a degree, or blending teaching with online learning to help students master material and earn credits in less time.  In some states, they’re testing new ways to fund college based not just on how many students enroll, but how many of them graduate, how well did they do,” he said. “And in the coming months, I will lay out an aggressive strategy to shake up the system, tackle rising costs, and improve value for middle-class students and their families.  It is critical that we make sure that college is affordable for every single American who’s willing to work for it.”

Student Achievement Council Selects New Officers

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The Washington Student Achievement Council recently selected new leadership.

Maud Daudon and Karen Lee, as selected by the members of the Council, will serve as Chair and Vice Chair of the Council.

Ray Lawton will remain in his position as Secretary for the Council.

Maud Daudon and Karen Lee are both citizen members of the Council, serving at the request of Governor Jay Inslee. Ray Lawton is the appointed representative for the Independent Colleges of Washington.

Elections for these positions occur annually, and all three members will serve one-year terms.

Developments from the Other Washington

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This week in the other Washington higher education was on the mind of policymakers.

In the U.S. House, the Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing on innovation in higher education. Among the topics of most interest to members was the area of competency-based education and prior learning assessment.  Speakers included representatives from the Council on Adult and Experiential Learning, StraighterLine, the University System of Maryland, and Western Governors University.

On the other side of the Capitol, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor Health and Human Services and Education approved a FY14 appropriations bill.

Among the major investments in the bill are funds to support a “Race to the Top” program focusing on college affordability and  a significant increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health.

The bill sets discretionary spending at $164.3 billion. This includes $400 million to support the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” initiative.  The funding for the program will be an incentive for states to reduce college costs and improve academic outcomes. The subcommittee would also allocate $850 million for the TRIO programs, which help low-income, first generation college students prepare for and succeed in postsecondary education.  Finally, the bill would increase the total maximum Pell Grant by $140 to $5,785.

The House has not yet introduced its version of the appropriations bill. It is considered unlikely that the two bills will be reconciled and passed. The full appropriations committee will meet later this week.

Governor Signs Operating Budget

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On Sunday Governor Inslee signed into law the 2013-15 biennial operating budget with a modest list of vetoes.

Among the items the Governor vetoed were three studies directed to the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, an Evergreen public service center.  These include:

  • Extraordinary Foster Care Cost Study based on the reasoning that a study is not necessary at this time.
  • Safety Assessment Tool Study based on the reasoning that a study at this time would be premature when the Department of Social and Health Services has not yet determined whether the assessment tool will continue to be used, modified, or maintained.
  • K-12 Funding Task Force based on the reasoning that another task force is duplicative of proposals from recent work groups.

The legislatively passed operating budget makes the strongest investment in higher education in years. The proposed budget assumes no increases in resident undergraduate tuition rates for the 2013-15 biennium. For 2013-14 the public, four-year institutions are prohibited from using tuition-setting authority to exceed the appropriated tuition level.

The total budget provides $3.1 billion in state funds to support higher education. The budget provides $119.3 million in funding to support the core academic functions of the institutions of higher education. Finally the budget makes an investment in financial aid including the College Bound Scholarship program and the State Need Grant.

WA Legislature Passes Biennial Capital Budget; Governor to Sign on Sunday

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Today the Washington Legislature took action on a biennial capital budget.  The Governor is expected to sign the capital budget along with the operating budget on Sunday.

The biennial capital budget passed by the Senate and the House provides $15.267 million for Evergreen’s capital program. This level of funding was below the budget originally passed by the Senate but above the budget passed by the House.

Over the next biennium Evergreen receives funding for three projects: (1) Science Lab I – Basement Renovation ($1.805 million), (2) Science Lab II – Second Floor Renovation ($4.694 million), and (3) Lecture Hall Renovation – Design ($1.308 million).

In addition the budget includes funding for minor works preservation and preventative maintenance.

Though the final capital budget represents approximately half of what Evergreen requested for the biennium, the funding provided allows the College to continue to move forward on critical capital projects over the next two years.

Legislatively Passed Operating Budget Makes Great Reinvestment in Higher Education

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This evening after a week of long days and nights on the floor and two legislative sessions the Washington Legislature sent to the Governor an operating budget that makes a substantial reinvestment in higher education.

Last session the Washington Legislature held the line on funding for higher education. This session the Legislature set a new path forward for higher education making a substantial reinvestment in access to an affordable quality education for students. The budget put forth by the Legislature reverses the trend of deep reductions all to familiar in higher education since the beginning of the Great Recession and makes a commitment to invest in higher education and to ease the financial burden for Washingtonians and their families.

The budget invests nearly $3 billion in Evergreen above a fully funded maintenance level budget. This represents an increase of 5.6% above 2011-13 levels and represents roughly half of the total request the Evergreen Board of Trustees put forth this past fall.

The reinvestment of state dollars will allow Evergreen to move forward in several critical areas including student success programming, basic technology and infrastructure needs, and staff and faculty recruitment and retention efforts.

Perhaps most critical in this budget is the commitment the Legislature makes to students by holding tuition at current levels for the next two years in the budget and making a substantial investment with state funds to preserve quality.

There is a Budget Deal

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This morning both chambers confirmed that a final budget deal has been reached for the 2013-15 biennium.  Members will be briefed on the proposal this afternoon. There is hope that the final budget may reach Governor Inslee’s desk by tomorrow night.

While we await details on the $33.6 billion budget, reports state that the budget includes an additional $1 billion into public schools; a prohibition on higher-education tuition increases for one year, with some flexibility in the second year; and an agreement to end a tax break for residential phone service that’s projected to net about $85 million over the next two years.

Though the general outlook is this will move forward, there is a cautious tone because disagreements between the two chambers remain. The disagreements, however, are primarily focused on separate pieces of legislation and not part of the budget. Among the topics still left undetermined include budget language to conduct a study on fish consumption and recovery plans for the protected Eastern Washington wolf population.

The budget deal comes after a week of negotiations and actions on the floor. Earlier this week both the House and Senate met and passed a handful of non-controversial bills that were deemed necessary to implement the budget.

Today the House successfully passed a $10 billion transportation tax package which includes a tax on gasoline. This is after a failed attempt yesterday.The future of the transportation package is uncertain in the Senate.

In addition, the House may take up legislation to stiffen drunken-driving penalties that was passed by the Senate earlier.

Read more here: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/politics/2013/06/27/morning-update-4-days-left-to-pass-a-budget-2nd-special-session-day-16/#storylink=cpy