Tag Archives: House Higher Education

First Deadline Passes and Next Deadline Nears in Legislature

Posted on by

This week marked the  first deadline in the 2011 legislative session. All House policy committees must have moved bills either to an appropriations committee or the floor by end of Thursday.  The Senate’s first deadline is Monday, February 21.

House Higher Education Committee

This week the House Higher Education Committee passed several bills, including two bills that would impact higher education tuition, financial aid, and accountability policies.

The substitute to House Bill 1795 – Higher Education Opportunity Act – adds statements about the state’s commitment to public funding and provides for tuition-setting authority by four year institutions for all students for four years, academic years 2011 through 2014 with the caveat that if institutions exceed tuition levels as follows: UW, WSU and WWU – 11% per year and TESC, CWU and EWU – 9% per year, they must provide financial aid to middle income students with the express purpose of mitigating the increases in tuition.

The bill also adds the  NGA Complete to Compete metrics with the addition of graduate and professional degrees, STEM and participation and completion for underrepresented students in STEM. Finally the bill requires a dashboard be developed on the Office of Financial Management’s website, requires changes in current financial aid criteria, establishes the Baccalaureate Degree Innovation program, and repeals performance agreements.

The Committee also moved HB 1666 which includes the recommendations from the Governor’s Task Force. The substitute that passed out of committee includes several changes to the bill.

The substitute passed out of committee makes several key changes to the funding mechanism in the bill, including changing the the date for increased flexibility for tuition-setting authority for the public baccalaureate institutions to the 2011-2012 academic year rather than the 2013-2014 academic year and changing the operating budget baseline year for funding higher education to fiscal year 2008 rather than 2011.

Senate Higher Education

This week the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Committee passed several bills this week, including the bill that includes the Governor’s Task Force recommendations for higher education and legislation that would alter how higher education is structured in Washington.

Senate Bill 5182 would eliminate the Higher Education Coodinating Board  (HECB) and create the Council for Performance and Accountability in Higher Education. The Council membership includes the six four-year institution presidents, one private nonprofit president, the executive director of the SBCTC, and a community or technical college president, or their designees.

The purpose of the council is to develop performance-based measures and goals for each state university, regional university, and the state college, linked to the role, mission, and strategic plan of the institution of higher education including (a) indicators and goals that measure outcomes concerning cost, quality, and timeliness of student progress toward degrees and certifications; (b) benchmarks and goals for long-term degree production, including discrete benchmarks and goals in particular fields of study; (c) the level of resources necessary to meet the performance outcomes, benchmarks, and goals, subject to legislative appropriation; (d) indicators and goals that measure outcomes concerning recruitment, retention, and success of students from diverse, underrepresented communities; and (e) a system of consequences for exceeding or for failing to achieve the goals or benchmarks. In addition the Council would perform the essential state governance functions previously assigned to the HECB.

The bill also creates the Office of Student Financial Assistance (Office) that administers all state and federal financial aid and the advanced college tuition payment program. The Office is under the supervision of the Council.

The Committee also moved SB 5717 which includes the recommendations from the Governor’s Task Force.

The substitute that passed out of committee includes several changes to the bill. The primary change is the elimination of the Washington Pledge Scholarship provisions. In addition the proposed bill adds three new accountability factors; requires institutions of higher education to report enrollments, completion ratios, and market penetration; and requires the HECB to analyze performance data and reports eachinstitution’s performance improvement under the baccalaureate degree incentive program.

Next Steps

Next week the Legislature will focus on the appropriation committees in both chambers (i.e. Senate Ways & Means, House Ways & Mean, and House Education Appropriations). Appropriation committees must move bills out of committee and to the floor by Friday, February 25.

To find out the status of legislation introduced this session be sure to check out either the Washington Legislature’s website or Evergreen’s bill tracking.

House Higher Education Hears Key Policy Bill

Posted on by

The House Higher Education Committee held a public hearing today on a key policy bill – House Bill 1795 sponsored by Rep. Carlyle- that would impact how higher education is funded, financial aid, and accountability for higher education institutions.

The bill as drafted – both the sponsor and the higher education community continue to work on the bill – would authorize public baccalaureate institutions to set tuition rates for all students for academic years 2011 through 2014 and direct public baccalaureate institutions to retain half of all tuition raised above 7 percent to support financial aid that mitigates tuition increases for middle class students with incomes up to 125 percent of the median family income.

In addition, the bill retains tuition setting authority for community and technical colleges with the state Legislature though individual colleges may raise tuition up to the state cap if the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges does not raise up to the cap for the whole state.

The bill would also require a study to recommend a possible phase two of Washington’s GET program and establish data reporting requirements for public baccalaureate institutions in statute and repeals performance agreements.  

 

  The  Committee heard testimony from several members of the higher education community, including institutions, students, faculty, the Higher Education Coordinating Board, and the Council of Presidents.  The testimony was clearly in favor of the bill with the only concern being the lack of knowledge at this time with regard to state funding levels for higher education. The testimony strongly supported the move to a single accountability system – Compete to Complete, additional tuition flexibility at the local level, and acknowledgement to work to mitigate the impacts on students.

Further action is expected on the bill next week.

The Committee also held a public hearing on substitute legislation to House Bill 1654. House Bill 1654 requires four-year public institutions of higher education and community and technical colleges that offer applied baccalaureate degrees to charge those resident students who exceed 125 percent of credits needed to obtain their degree at a nonresident or graduate tuition rate for credits that exceed 125 percent.

The proposed substitute language grandfathers current students in under current policy, removes the reporting requirement, and adds some specific waiver language  in addition to broader waiver language for institutions.

The Council of Presidents testified that the bill provided the latitude necessary to implement the intent of the legislation. The Washington Student Association testified in opposition to the bill.

The bill is scheduled for further action next week.

Finally the Committee took further action on a handful of bills, including:

  •  HB 1394 – Enacting the college efficiency and savings act.
  • HB 1477 – Authorizing the board of trustees at Eastern Washington University to offer educational specialist degrees.
  • HB 1568 – Regarding appointing members to the boards of trustees for community colleges and the state board for community and technical colleges.
  • HB 1586 – Regarding the provision of doctorate programs at the research university branch campuses in Washington.
  • HB 1650 – Changing state need grant eligibility provisions.

House Higher Education Moves More Bills

Posted on by

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.

House Higher Education Committee Hears Legislation

Posted on by

This morning the House Higher Education Committee heard several proposed bills, ranging from purchasing to membership on community and technical college boards.

The following bills were heard:

  • HB 1568 – Regarding appointing members to the boards of trustees for community colleges and the state board for community and technical colleges.
  • HB 1477 – Authorizing the board of trustees at Eastern Washington University to offer educational specialist degrees.
  • HB 1663 – Removing the requirement that institutions of higher education purchase from correctional industries.
  • HB 1631 – Providing for academic employee salary increments for community and technical colleges.
  • HB 1451 – Eliminating the goal of global challenge state funding levels.

The Evergreen State College signed in support for HB 1477 and HB 1663 and did not take a position on the community college related legislation.

Evergreen also submitted written testimony to the Committee in support of House Bill 1451. As stated in our testimony, Evergreen supports the elimination of the Global Challenge State (GCS) framework.  We believe the elimination of this framework will simplify and clarify accountability metrics for Washington’s four-year, public baccalaureate institutions and allow the state to refocus on maintaining access to college for Washington residents.

The GCS framework was established in 2002 as part of the New Economy Index (NEI). The framework lasted for only two-years. Currently, the New Economy Index no longer exists and the states identified in 2002 have not been updated since 2004.

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.

House Higher Education Holds Public Hearings on Credit Related Legislation

Posted on by
Reply

This the fourth week of session kicked off with a public hearing in House Higher Education on a handful of bill that could have impacts on the credits student earn for a higher education degree.

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

Evergreen testified in support of the legislation. Evergreen recognizes prior academic credit through the College’s Prior Learning from Experience (PLE) Program. Evergreen typically has 30 students a year enter our PLE program, and just over 20 a year finish with “extra” credits earned for their prior learning.  

Evergreen asked the Committee to clarify language regarding the goal to standardize programs to ensure the legislation will allow Evergreen to collaborate with the work group identified in this legislation and continue our current policy which we believe serves student well.

House Bill 1525 etablishes a work group to create a single set of common course numbers and common course descriptions for all common lower division courses at all public institutions of higher education. 

Evergreen testified in support of the intention of the bill to make transfer as seamless as possible, but asked to be exempted from the legislation because Evergreen does not offer courses and does not have course numbers. Instead, the College offers single, comprehensive programs rather than a series of separate courses.  In addition, we expressed concern that if directed to adopt courses and a numbering system, Evergreen would greatly restrict the transfer policy that is currently in place.

House Bill 1394 lifts restrictions on higher education institutions with respect to meetings, personal services contracts, equipment purchases, out-of-state travel and hiring.  The Evergreen State College signed-in to support this legislation but did not testify.

The Committee also moved several bills forward through the process for further consideration including:

  • House Bill 1221 – Regarding the rights of certain higher education students involved in military service
  • House Bill 1424 – Regarding administrative consistency in student financial aid programs.
  • House Bill 1425 – Concerning the HECB’s responsibilities with regard to health sciences and services authorities.

Governance Focus of Work Session in the House

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.