Tag Archives: higher education

Higher Education Related Issues in Other Committees

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This morning the House Technology, Energy & Communications Committee and the House Labor & Workforce Development Committee  held public hearings on two bills that may impact higher education institutions in Washington.

The House Technology, Energy & Communications Committee considered legislation that would propose changes to the current organization of information technology in Washington

House Bill 1841 would create the Office of the Chief Information Officer (Office of the CIO) within the Office of Financial Management and create an Information Technology (IT) Advisory Board to advise the Office of the CIO on IT issues.

In addition the bill would eliminate the Information Services Board, replace the Department of Information Services with the newly created Consolidated Technology Services Agency (CTS Agency), and create a Consolidated Technology Services Agency Board that, among other things, approves the catalog of services offered by the CTS Agency and the rates for such services.

The House Labor & Workforce Development Committee heard legislation that would propose changes to current arbitration practices for campus police officers at institutions of higher education.

House Bill 1736 would provide binding interest arbitration for uniformed personnel under the Personnel System Reform Act and define uniformed personnel as campus police officers at institutions of highereducation.

The University of Washington testified with concerns on behalf of all of the four-year, public baccalaureate institutions.

 

Education Appropriations Committee Holds Work Session on Four-Year Institutions

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This morning the House Education Appropriations & Oversight Committee held a work session on Washington’s four-year, public baccalaureate institutions.

The focus of the work session centered on the four-year sector through a funding lens. Mike Reilly, Executive Director for the Council of Presidents, engaged the Committee in an overview of the public baccalaureate institutions regarding the recent history of higher education funding in Washington and the impact of the Governor’s proposed 2011-13 biennial budget.  In addition, Reilly highlighted the high productivity of the sector and concerns with regard to participation.

Representatives of each of the four-year, public baccalaureate institutions were in attendance for questions and answers, including The Evergreen State College.

Note: All committee presentations can be found on the House Education Appropriation and Oversight Committee’s website by clicking on Committee Meeting Documents, select the date and work session, and then select the presentation.

House Higher Education Moves More Bills

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This afternoon the House Higher Education Committee moved some legislation forward for further consideration.

The Committee took action on three bills:

House Bill 1522 would require collaboration among higher education institutions and state agencies to increase the number of students who receive credit for prior learning and increase the types of credits awarded for prior learning.

The bill was amended in three ways: (1) Adds a focus on quality of prior learning assessments in addition to increasing quantity of credits awarded under the goals for the Work Group; (2) Emphasizing improvement and not consistency for one of the work group goals to avoid any potential for standardization of practices that do not fit with an institution’s mission; and (3) Requiring the HECB to staff the prior learning work group instead of the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges.

The bill passed out of committee.

House Bill 1089  prohibits an institution that provides a specialized format version of instructional material to a student with a print access disability from requiring the return of the material.

The bill was amended to allow institutions to require the return of the specialized format materials that were transcribed or translated at the expense of the institution where the cost of making a reproduction of the translation or transcription is more than 100 dollars.

The bill was passed out of committee.

House Bill 1425 removes responsibility from the Higher Education Coordinating Board for: (1) developing evaluation and performance measures in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs in a Health Sciences and Services Authority; and (2) reporting to the Legislature on a biennial basis.

The bill passed out of committee.

The Committee also held a public hearing on HB 1586 and HB 1650.  The Evergreen State College signed-in to support HB 1650.

House Bill 1650 allows part-time students who are accepted for enrollment for at least three credits to be eligible for the State Need Grant, by removing the pilot status of the program and the expiration date and restores child support payments in computations of financial need for part-time students applying for the State Need Grant.

Finally, the Committee held a work session on the Governor’s proposed budget and tuition setting and the Community and Technical Colleges’ Student Achievement Initiative.

The House Higher Education Committee will meet again on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.

Senate Passes Supplemental Budget

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This morning the Washington Senate passed (38-9) a striking amendment to the supplemental budget bill (ESHB 1086), the House version of the operating supplemental budget.

The supplemental budget brought to the Senate floor this morning was amended and passed out of the Senate Ways & Means Committee on Thursday.  The Committee adopted a handful of amendments during the executive session, including language to add back funds each four-year, public baccalaureate institution pays as members of the Council of presidents that were reduced in the original bill.

The Senate’s supplemental budget still reduces higher education by $25.4 million through a tuition transfer from the institutions -public 2-year and 4-year – to the Higher Education Coordinating Board for financial aid.

In addition,  funding reductions were retained to the Higher Education Coordinating Board ($909,000), Workforce Employment and Training (ESD) ($318,000), and the following HECB programs and services ($632,000): (1) College Readiness Program, (2) Health Sciences and Services Authority (HSSA), (3) student financial aid administration, and (4) the Technology Transformation Task Force. 

The next step is to convene a conference committee comprised of three senators ( two Democrats and one Republican) and three representatives (two Democrats and one Republican) to iron out the differences between the two budgets. Once there is agreement, the bill will be voted on by both chambers with no opportunity for amendments, and then sent to the Governor for her signature.

College Promise Coalition Elevates Higher Education at The Capitol

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This morning the College Promise Coalition, a coalition that advocates for the colleges and universities, alongside students, parents, faculty, alumni, labor and business leaders, and education advocates in order to urge the legislature to make higher education a top priority, held a media event at The Capitol.

Students from two- and four-year institutions opened the event announcing the Coalition, its importance and the broad support within the Coalition for higher education in Washington.  In addition, the students shared how their lives have been impacted as funding for institutions has declined.

Following the student President Les Purce – The Evergreen State College,  President Elson Floyd – WSU, President Roy Heyndrickx – St Martin’s, Ana Mari Cauce – UW Dean of Arts and Sciences, the College Success Foundation, and faculty and union representatives shared what is at stake for the state regarding reductions to higher education investments over the last few years, spoke to the value of the student experience, and recognized the need for investments in access.

House and Senate Committees hear Governor’s Bill Implementing Task Force Recommendations

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The House Higher Education Committee and the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Committee held public hearings today on House Bill 1666. The legislation has yet to be assigned a bill number in the Senate.

As Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Task Force announced in December, the proposal would alter the policies that currently structure funding, transfer, and accountability for higher education in Washington.

The bill would set degree production targets to increase 27 percent over 2010 levels by 2018. In addition, the legislation establishes a state funding baseline, tuition flexibility and funding levels for four-year public baccalaureate institutions comparable to institutions in other states; creates an endowment for low and middle income students who wish to obtain a baccalaureate degree and a tax credit for businesses that contribute; adopts new performance measures for four-year public baccalaureate institutions and creates a program to incentivize progress; and requires the creation of a one year transferrable certificate and other measures to ease student transfer and increase recognition of prior learning.

Both committees heard from business, including the big ones (i.e. Microsoft and Boeing), members of the Task Force, faculty, and the institutions of higher education, including The Evergreen State College.  The testimony was clearly in favor of the work of the Task Force and the elevation of higher educatin in the minds of those in Olympia but was accompanied with the need to continue to work on the bill.

No further action is scheduled for the bill at this time.

Higher Education Opportunity Act Introduced in Washington

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Today Representative Carlyle, Vice Chair for House Higher Education, launched the Higher Education Opportunity Act.

Carlyle stated “the trend in the Legislature is to reduce funding for the institutions of higher education under the operating assumption that they can continue to absorb the cuts without measurable or meaningful consequences for students, faculty, families and supporters. The trend of decreasing state support and increasing tuition seems virtually unstoppable. The question is not whether this trend will continue but how we can get a handle on the negative consequences for the middle class and more intelligently manage this structural shift.”

The Higher Education Opportunity Act would: 

  • Tuition-Setting Authority: For a four year window between academic years 2011 and 2014, public baccalaureate institutions are granted full local authority to set tuition rates for all students. After that four year time frame, tuition-setting authority for in-state undergraduates reverts back to the Legislature.
  • Dramatically Increasing Financial Aid for the Middle Class: Fifty percent of all tuition raised above a 7 percent ‘base’ per year at public baccalaureate institutions must be protected, reserved and spent by the institutions to fund new financial aid to directly increase assistance for the middle class. This allows students from families earning from 70% of medium family income (about $56,000 for a family of four–the current level of aid) to 125% of medium family income can receive substantial financial aid to mitigate the negative effects of rising tuition.
  • Institute a Radical Commitment to the Leverage Federal Tax Credits and Incentives: Strong requirements are put in place for higher education institutions to inform, educate and reach out to students about highly valuable federal tax credits available to them such as the American Opportunity Tax Credit and the Lifelong Learning tax credit.
  • Acknowledging Multiple Kid Family Costs for the Middle Class: In assessing higher education financing challenges, the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) is required for the first time to consider family size as part of the family contribution for students of the state need grant, and is also required to establish criteria for awards that is not solely based on “first come, first served.”
  • Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET Program): The Committee on Advanced Tuition Payment (state treasurer, HECB director, OFM director, program participant and business rep) are required to review tuition levels and recommend a possible “GET II.”
  • Higher Education Institutional Accountability: The National Governor’s Association Complete to Compete Metrics are established in statute.
  • Eliminating Reports and Studies that are Duplicative or Unnecessary: Over the years the Legislature, Governor and boards have saddled the institutions with a huge number of reports, studies and data requests that may or may not be useful. This plan moves forward to eliminate the burden while keeping quality data available for public policy decision makers.

At a press conference this morning, Carlyle  shared that this legislation is a work in progress and needs time to ripen.  The bill is expected to be heard before the House Higher Educationo Committee next week.

Budget Committees Focus on Issues that Impact Higher Education

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On Thursday the Budget Committees took up a range of issues that impact higher education.

Capital Budget
The House Capital Budget Committee held a public hearing on the Governor’s proposed capital budget for 2011-13. 

 The Governor’s proposed budget woud provide $17.2 million in new state funding for the Communications Laboratory Building Renovation, the Science Center Lab I Second Floor Renovation and Life Safety Code Compliance. Additionally, the Governor appropriates $8.2 million of Evergreen’s building account funds in the capital budget for a variety preventative maintence and building repairs.

John Hurley, Vice President for Finance and Administration testified for The Evergreen State College.

House Ways & Means
The House Ways & Means Committee held a work session on the Governor’s proposed biennial budget for higher education.

The Governor’s proposed biennial budget reduces state funding for Evergreen by 26.3% for the 2011-13 biennium. In addition, the proposed tuition revenue generated leaves Evergreen’s General Operating Fund budget in deficit. The Governor’s budget does not take into account costs associated with over-enrollments and assumes greater  tuition revenue raising capacity. Under this proposal tuition revenue represents 63% Evergreen’s budget compared to 57% last biennium.

Senate Ways & Means
The Senate Ways & Means Committee held a public hearing on Senate Bill 5162 which would alter the current retire/rehire practices at higher education institutions in Washington.

Governance Focus of Work Session in the House

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This morning the House Higher Education Committee held a work session on higher education governance.

The hearing provided the first opportunity to hear about some of the details that can be expected in  the Governor’s legislation to reform current education structures in Washington. The bill to implement the Governor’s proposal for education governance reform is expected next week.

The Committee heard a presentation from Leslie Goldstein, higher education policy analyst for the Governor. She provided an overview of the process, intentions and goals with regard to the development of the Governor’s proposal to reform how education is structured.

In addition, the Committee heard several overviews regarding different governance structures in the United States and how higher education is currently structured from the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges.  

Note: All committee presentations can be found on the House Higher Education Committee’s website by clicking on Committee Meeting Documents, selecting the date and work session, and then selecting the presentation

House and Senate Higher Education Committees Hold Hearings on Bills

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This week both the House Higher Education Committee and the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee held public hearings on legislation referred to committee.

This morning the House Higher Education Committee held public hearings on four bills:

  • HB 1089 – Regarding instructional materials provided in a specialized format.
  • HB 1221 – Regarding the rights of certain higher education students involved in military service.
  • HB 1424 – Regarding administrative consistency in student financial aid programs.
  • HB 1425 – Concerning the higher education coordinating board’s responsibilities with regard to health sciences and services authorities.

The Evergreen State College testified in support of HB 1221, advocating for the predictability and stability this bill would offer veterans attending higher education institutions in Washington.

In the afternoon, the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee focused on higher education reform through governance.  The Committee held a public hearing on three bills that proposed different reforms to the state’s current higher education governance structure.

  • SB 5182 – Establishing the office of student financial assistance by eliminating the higher education coordinating board and transferring its functions to various entities.
  • SB 5107 – Creating efficiencies in the Washington state college and university system by consolidation.
  • SB 5108 – Abolishing the council of presidents.

The Evergreen State College, as the current Chair of the Council of Presidents, provided testimony on behalf of all the four-year, public institutions in opposition to abolishing the Council.