The House Higher Education committee met this morning, January 31, to talk about Washington’s Guaranteed Education Tuition Program (GET) and Financial Aid counseling. To begin the work session House Analyst Catrina Lucero provided an overview of the GET program and talked about why it has been in the spotlight recently. Following Ms. Lucero, the committee heard from Washington’s State Treasurer, James McIntire, and James Smith from the State’s Actuary’s Office. Following the GET conversation, the committee discussed financial aid counseling, hearing from financial aid officers at our higher education institutions; including Evergreen’s Tracy Hall.

GET Program

The GET program was created by the WA State legislature in the mid-1990’s as a 529 pre-paid college tuition plan. Measured in “units,” where 100 units represent the cost of one year of resident, undergraduate tuition and state-mandated fees at the highest priced public university (either UW or WSU), individual units are valued at 1/100th of that cost.

The GET program has come under increased scrutiny in recent years after the legislature passed major higher education reform legislation in 2011. Among the reforms, the legislation allowed Washington’s colleges and universities to set their own tuition, and allowed them to implement differential tuition. Just as it sounds, differential tuition is the process of charging different tuition rates for different degree programs. The reasoning behind this policy is certain programs cost more than others. For example, an engineering program costs more to provide than an English or history program. Differential tuition can be a tool of use for colleges and universities who have seen their budgets slashed in recent years. Problems arise with GET because as one will recall, a GET unit is priced based on the highest priced public university. Additionally, double digit tuition increases that offset some of the cuts levied to Washington’s higher education institutions, has caused the price of GET units to rise significantly.

After the 2012 legislative session the legislature created a task force to review the impacts of differential tuition on the program and make recommendations on how to proceed with differential tuition and GET. That taskforce, by a close vote, recommended closing the GET program, honoring current contracts and allowing differential tuition authority for those institutions that are not the basis for the value of a GET unit. A decision met with mixed feelings in the legislature, GET has now become one of the “hot button” issues of the 2013 session. Just how lawmakers will proceed is unknown at this time, but we will certainly keep you posted as decisions are made.

Financial Aid

To kick off the financial aid counseling panel the House Higher Education Committee first heard from a panel of two year representatives. Following the two-year panel the committee heard from a panel of four-year counselors. Included were Evergreen’s Tracy Hall, UW’s Kay Lewis and Pacific Lutheran University’s Ron Noborikawa. All panelists talked about the importance of financial literacy and a knowledge of paying for one’s education. The panelists talked about the different types of monies used to pay for a student’s education, including, federal and state financial aid, scholarships and loans. With the recent recession and increases in tuition at our institutions, student “neediness” is increasing in Washington. However, the loan debt our state’s students take on is still low compared to other states in the nation. In fact, the UW’s Kay Lewis noted most of her students are still borrowing “responsibly” and are very weary of taking on too much debt. Lewis also talked about counseling “tools” available to students. These include “old fashioned” one-on-one counseling sessions provided by institutions, as well as a new federal US Department of Education website that allows students to project income and loan repayments, and explore loan repayment plans.

It’s week three of the 2013 legislative session and things are well under way in both chambers.

The House and Senate Higher Education Committees have continued to hold work sessions where they are exploring a variety of higher education topics. Yesterday, January 29th, the House Higher Education Committee held a work session on Washington’s financial aid programs and student debt.

House Higher Education Committee

Hearing first from Dr. Rachelle Sharpe, Director of Student Financial Assistance at the Washington Student Achievement Council; the committee was briefed on tuition patterns, financial aid and student borrowing and debt. Due to significant budget cuts, the state’s colleges and universities have been forced to offset those losses with tuition increases. As expected, greater burdens have been placed on the state’s financial aid programs and student borrowing. While 75,000 students were awarded State Need Grants last year, another 32,000 students were left unserved. Not surprisingly, students are borrowing at greater levels. Interestingly, according to Dr. Sharpe’s report, students at our two year community colleges are borrowing at a faster rate than other sectors, but many students do graduate without any debt and private loan borrowing has decreased significantly. Additionally, Washington student debt loads still rank quite low when measured on a national scale. Ranking 39th in the nation, average total loan debt upon graduation in Washington is $22,244 with 56% of students graduating with no loan debt. For Dr. Sharpe’s full presentation click here.

Following Dr. Sharpe the committee heard from Mason H. Burley of the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. The Institute has been charged by the legislature to determine” to what extent the State Need Grant program has increased access and degree attainment for low-income students” and whether spending in the program has been utilized in an efficient manner. The final report is not due until December 2013, but an update to the legislature was required by December 2012. Mason spent a good deal of his presentation giving a background on what is expected of the report and the trends the Institute will be studying. To see his entire presentation click here.

Finally, the House Higher Education Committee was scheduled to conduct a hearing on two bills; House Bill 1043 and House Bill 1109. The committee ran out of time and only heard testimony on the former. House Bill 1043 limits differential tuition setting authority at the state colleges and universities. Representatives of both the two and four year sectors spoke in opposition to the bill. While representatives reported no schools plan on implementing differential tuition at this time, all felt by eliminating its potential, the institution’s hands could be tied further down the road. Speaking in support of the legislation were members of the Washington Student Association.

Senate Higher Education

Over in the other chamber, Senate Higher Education also met yesterday, January 29th. On the agenda for the Senate committee was a work session on industry needs in the State of Washington and how higher education can respond to those needs. The committee heard from a variety of stakeholders over the two hour period. These included; the Washington Roundtable and a technology panel, with representatives from Socrata Inc and ZymoGenetics; an aerospace and trade panel, with representatives from the Aerospace Committee/Orion Industries and the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle; an Agriculture and Health Panel, with representatives from the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers and Philips Health Care; and, an Energy and Forest Products Panel, with representatives from Washington State University’s Energy Program and Sierra Pacific. All panelists stressed the importance of “hands-on” experience available to Washington students. Additionally, all indicated a desire to hire employees from within our state. For the full presentations please click here.

The House Higher Education committee met yesterday, Wednesday, to continue to hearing from representatives of Washington industries in need of higher education graduates.

Among those presenting were panelists from the Biomedical, Energy, Agriculture and Viticulture industries. The House Higher Education Committee has been spending the week covering some of the most in-demand industries for 2 and 4 year college graduates. The panels will continue today, Thursday, with representatives from healthcare and maritime industries.

House Bill 1048

Also on the agenda yesterday was a public hearing concerning House Bill 1048; Regarding Higher Education Governance. 1048 concerns the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC). During the 2012 legislative session, legislation was enacted replacing the Higher Education Coordinating Board with the WSAC. Contained in the legislation were the purposes and functions of the newly created council. HB 1048 makes small technical corrections to the law, as well as adds two voting members to the council; a representative from the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board and a representative of early learning. The committee plans on voting on the bill today, Thursday.

It is day 10 of the 2013 legislative session and the legislature is hard at work informing itself on what has been happening over the interim. Importantly, both the senate and house higher education committees have been meeting to discuss a range of topics relevant to the sector.

House Higher Education

Yesterday, Tuesday, the House Higher Education committee convened at 8am to cover emerging “industry” needs statewide. Specifically, the committee invited two panels to present: aerospace and software. Representatives from the Washington Aerospace and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Workforce Pipeline Advisory Committee were on hand to present the opportunities and challenges that face the aerospace industry. These include a booming market where companies such as Boeing hired over 13,000 people since February 2011. With demand outpacing the number of graduates qualified to meet that demand, the advisory committee provided several recommendations. These included:

• New Aerospace Student Slots (500 FTE)
• Credentials and Certifications – Testing to measure worker readiness to meet employer hiring standards ($300,000)
• Professional Development of Faculty – Improving faculty experience with aerospace needs ($768,000)
• Establish a “talent pipeline” from K-12 to the CTC system ($300,000)
• Marketing to Industry/Center for Excellence – Providing an pathway from secondary school to a career ($200,000)
• Expand the training infrastructure in King/Pierce counties ($10 million)

Following the aerospace panel representatives from the software sector provided the committee with an overview of the emerging needs of their industry. Specifically, representatives from the University of Washington outlined why emerging Technology-based industries are at the forefront of Washington’s economy and account for the largest share of employment, business activity, and labor income of any sector in the state’s economic base. In fact, the software industry has an even greater demand than aerospace.

Regardless of what industry is in greatest demand, it is clear these two will be leaders in many of the legislative discussions this session and how Washington’s higher education system, including Evergreen, might continue to respond to their demands.

Senate Higher Education

Later in the afternoon the Senate Higher Education Committee met to discuss “performance, planning and outcomes.” Among those presenting was Paul Francis of the Council of President’s and Melissa Beard of the Office of Financial Management (OFM) to talk about the newly launched higher education dashboard. The dashboard is the result of a collaborative partnership between OFM and the six public universities and colleges to create a centralized dashboard that displays a number of accountability measures, such as, graduation rates and the time it takes to complete a bachelor’s degree for each institution statewide. This partnership came about, in part, due to 2010 initiative of the National Governor’s Association, chaired by former WA Governor Christine Gregoire. Out of this initiative came 10 recommendations regarding outcome and progress metrics that state should be collecting. These metrics could then be used to increase college completion while improving higher education productivity. The dashboard is the realization of this goal.

Following Francis and Beard the committee heard presentations from The State Board for Community & Technical Colleges on their student achievement initiative, an overview of performance based funding, and a presentation by Brian Baird, new chairman of the Washington Student Achievement Council.

The Senate Ways & Means Committee met yesterday, January 21, to hold a work session on the budget outlook for higher education in Washington State. Those presenting included Ways & Means Staff, two and four year higher education institutional representatives and staff from the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC). For a full agenda please click here.

Budget & Enrollment Situation

Senate Ways & Means higher education staffer, Maria Hovde, kicked off the work session by providing an in depth presentation on the budget situation of higher education. Composing 9% of the entire Washington State Budget, the two and four year sectors, as well as Washington’s robust financial aid programs, total more than $2.7 billion. Additionally, more than 250,000 students are participating in Washington’s public higher education system.  While the higher education sector has seen a small increase in overall state spending through the years, it is due in large part to a growing financial aid program, not increased state support to the institutions. In fact, according to Hovde, financial aid now accounts for 22% of higher education spending, as opposed to 8% in 1990. Additionally, state funds to institutions have been on the decline since 1989 and have seen significant drops since the start of the great recession.

Hovde also spent time covering enrollments trends at Washington’s higher education institutions. While all have seen dramatic increases over the past years, due in large part to a decline in the overall numbers of K-12 students, and with individuals choosing to return to school with a meager job market, these trends are beginning to see a decline. For the 2012 academic year the higher education sector reported a 1.8% decline in overall enrollments.

Following Hovde’s presentation the committee spent time covering three prominent Washington financial aid and college savings programs – the State Need Grant, College Bound and GET.

Washington’s Aid Programs

The State Need Grant financial aid program, administered by the WSAC, serves over 75,000 students each year in 68 institutions throughout Washington. However, 31,000 students remain un-served. Much of this is in large part due to the Great Recession. Policy makers will be grappling with figuring out how to serve as many students as possible, while balancing the needs of the other sectors of government.

The College Bound Program, also administered by the WSAC, encourages low-income, middle school students to choose a path that will lead to educational success after high school. The program promises tuition (at public institution rates) and a small book allowance for income-eligible students who sign up in the 7th or 8th grade, work hard in school, stay out of legal trouble, and successfully apply to a higher education institution when they graduate. Currently the program has over 125,000 active participants.

Current Executive Director of the WSAC, Don Bennett, spent the final portion of the financial aid conversation covering Washington’s Guaranteed Education Tuition program (GET). GET is a 529 plan administered by Washington, helping families save for college. With GET, an account is guaranteed to keep pace with rising tuition and can be used at nearly any public or private college in the country. GET has come under fire in recent months with policy makers nervous of its funding status. Because tuition has had to increase in recent years to keep pace with declining state funds, the GET program’s financial soundness has been called into question. It is evident; however, no consensus exists on what to do about the program. Conversations in the legislature in the coming months will be important to the future of GET.

Sector Stakeholders – Evergreen’s Julie Garver

For the final agenda item the committee heard from key stakeholders, including, representatives of the public baccalaureates. Paul Francis, Interim Executive Director of the Council of President’s, kicked those conversations off with a presentation covering the four-year public baccalaureate sector. Among items covered, Francis spoke to the achievements and concerns of the sector. Achievements include, being a national leader in graduation rates, serving underserved students and maintaining commitments to quality educational opportunities for all. Concerns include Washington’s national rank of last regarding total per student funding levels, Washington’s low participation rates and declining state funds. Francis ended, however, with a solution towards a step in a positive direction.  Outlining the Council of President’s $225 million investment proposal, Francis spoke to the opportunities that exist with new state investments. For a full explanation of the proposal please see our previous blog post.

Following Francis the committee heard briefly from representatives of the four year schools. Among those presenting was Evergreen’s Julie Garver, Director of Governmental Relations. Garver touched on Evergreen’s strengths as a public institution in Washington and the opportunities available as we move forward. Advocating for the Council of President’s $225 million proposal, Garver indicated Evergreen is ready and able to move forward to continue meeting the higher education needs of the State of Washington.

Jay Inslee was sworn in as Washington’s 23rd Governor this morning.  A Democrat, Inslee outlined priorities for his coming years as the State’s chief executive. With a top priority of “job creation,” Governor Inslee outlined 7 key areas where job growth will be focused, including; transportation, our military, education and green energy.

Vowing “disruptive change,” Inslee said “I heard a clear and powerful message on Election Day. The people of Washington state are tired of a state government that doesn’t change with the times. Today we begin a multi-year effort to bring disruptive change to Olympia, starting with the very core of how we do business” 

These changes include moving from a government focused on “inputs” to one on “outputs,” a government focused on  “knowing its customers and what they value,” and looking at all government processes and striving for continued improvement. Rallying public employees to be “change agents” in government, Inslee plans to focus on “data driven results” and “accountability” as he moves forward.

While Inslee spoke to the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision and the funding implications it has on K-12 education, he was relatively mum on higher education issues.

As Inslee outlines his legislative, and higher education, priorities we will continue to keep you updated.

The Washington State Senate kicked the 2013 session off with electing a new Majority Coalition and leaderships posts.

As expected, Senator Rodney Tom will serve as Senate Majority leader; leading a new “majority coalition” of 23 Republicans and two cross-over Democrats (Tom and Tim Sheldon of Potlatch). The new coalition also elected Senator Sheldon to the post of President Pro Tempore of the Senate and Senator Paull Shin (D, Lynnwood) as Vice President Pro Tempore. Additionally, the Senate elected a new Secretary of the Senate; Hunter Goodman. The Secretary of the Senate serves as the chief administrative officer of the senate. Goodman has most recently served as a deputy and legislative director for outgoing Attorney General Rob McKenna. Hunter will replace long-time Secretary Tom Hoemann who was replaced during the Senate power shift.

Yesterday the Council of Presidents announced Paul Francis will fill the roll of Interim Director of the organization. Current Executive Director, David Schumacher, is leaving his post after taking the position of OFM Director for Governor-elect Inslee’s new administration.

Paul Francis is currently the Associate Director for the organization. Before joining the Council, Francis worked for the Washington State House Democratic Caucus for five years on higher education policy issues.

For the full announcement click here.