Last Friday, October 5th, representatives from Evergreen attended a Latino Education Policy Forum held in SeaTac, WA. Specifically, the forum explored data and research-based policy proposals that may be presented to Washington’s Governor and legislature.

Dr. Edward Lee Vargas, Superintendent of the Kent School District, lead the K-12 conversation. Following Dr. Vargas Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction, Randy Dorn, spoke to the group on what is needed in the K-12 sector. Besides a fully-funded K-12 sector, Dr Vargas and Superintendent Dorn spoke about the changing demographics in the sector. Dorn noted this issue should be looked at more holistically, and include early learning and higher education. Finally, Dorn spoke to the fact undocumented students have difficulty financing higher education because they are not eligible for most loans, or the state need grant in Washington.

After the K-12 discussion, Dr Luis Fraga presented on issues affecting the Latino/a community in the higher education sector in Washington and nationally. Dr. Fraga, Associate Vice Provost at the University of Washington, spoke specifically on 3 big policy recommendations needed. Those are: 1) Financing higher education, specifically, fully funding the state need grant and extending it to undocumented students; 2) Enhancing academic competence, specifically, funding school district, community college and 4 year partnerships; and 3) Empowering Latino families, specifically, engaging entire families, not just the student.

Following Dr. Vargas, a legislative panel presented on their views to moving forward. Panelists included, Senator Rosemary McAuliffe (Chair, Senate Education committee), Representative Larry Seaquist (Chair. Higher Education committee), Representative Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney (Chair, Community & Economic Development &  Housing committee) and Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos (Chair, House Education committee). Among their recommendations, Representative Seaquist noted that we must not be slow to change in order to increase educational attainment for Latino/a students, and several panelists reiterated Superintendent Dorn’s position the K-12 sector must be fully funded.

Last Friday, September 28th, Evergreen’s Vice President for Student Affairs, Art Costantino, and Veteran’s Affairs Coordinator, Tyrone Newton, presented to the House Higher Education Committee during a work session looking at veteran services at our colleges and universities.

Touting Evergreen’s exceptional services and programming, the two joined a panel of other 2 and 4 year college representatives. Costantino and Newton spoke on the various services,  programs and financial resources available to veterans and their dependents on campus.  Among the notable programs and approaches mentioned were; our unique, holistic advising system; partnerships with other veteran organizations; specialized mental health services; and specific academic programming geared toward veteran’s needs. A former student, current employee and veteran, Newton described why he chose Evergreen, and the assistance the Veteran’s office provides for current students, faculty and staff.

You can access their presentation, as well as the entire committee meeting, by visiting the TVW webpage here.

Washington State’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council reported their third quarter revenue forecast last week, and revenues are up – very slightly.

According to the Olympian newspaper, “Compared with past forecasts, state government is expected to bring in about $29 million more in the current biennium … that should mean that lawmakers won’t need to come back for a special session to balance the budget.” However, the start of next biennium, beginning in July 2013, may be more problematic. The forecast predicts a $500 million shortfall in that budget, with more needed as a buffer. This upcoming legislative session the legislature is also expected to add around $1 billion in funding to K-12 education after Washington’s Supreme Court found the State has not been upholding its “constitutional duty” to fully-fund the K-12 sector.

State economists also caution that there are several major risks that could hurt growth, such as a slowdown in China, debt in Europe and uncertainty in Congress. “We have a lot of uncertainty,” said Steve Lerch, the new executive director for the forecast council.

The next revenue forecast is due out in November. It is expected the Governor will release her 2013-2105 biennial budget recommendations shortly after that date.

The Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released a preliminary look at the upcoming September economic  forecast … and the news is slightly better. The preliminary forecast is based on a modified version of Global Insight’s August 2012 Control forecast for the U.S. economy, and while quite small, the new forecast is slightly stronger going into September. As reported by Steve Lerch, Interim Executive Director for the Council, since the June forecast the WA State economy has added 10,300 jobs, 3,500 better than the 6,800 expected in the June forecast. Further, total employment is 7,400 (0.2%) higher in July than expected in the June forecast. Manufacturing employment growth also remains strong, but construction employment growth remains weak, and government employment continues to decline.

The June forecast also assumed some backsliding in housing construction which did not materialize. Housing permits came in at 28,100 units in the second quarter of 2012 compared to 27,700 in the first quarter and 20,600 in the fourth quarter of 2011. And the current estimate of Washington personal income for the first quarter of 2012 is $4.4 billion (1.4%) higher than the June forecast.

Review of the forecast by the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors is scheduled for Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 10:00 a.m., in the Governor’s Conference Room.

In 2011 Congress passed the Budget Control Act (BCA) which imposes caps on discretionary programs, reducing their funding by more than $1 trillion over the ten years from 2012 to 2021.   As many may recall, the act also established the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the “Supercommittee”).  The BCA tasked the committee with developing a plan on how to reach the $1 trillion reduction goals and also established a back-up “sequestration” procedure to increase the incentive on the committee to reach a compromise. The Supercommittee failed to achieve its goal, and as a result, sequestration – a form of automatic cuts that apply largely across the board – is now scheduled to occur beginning in January 2013.

In early August President Obama signed into law HR 5872, the Sequestration Transparency Act. The act requires the administration to report, within 30 days of the act, the impact of the looming across-the-board cuts set to take effect January 2013. President Obama believes that both parties can compromise and avert across-the-board cuts; however, both parties have reached no such deal.

Last week the Office of Financial Management (OFM) in Olympia circulated a memo to all state agencies asking that we be prepared to develop proposals for service reduction should the act take effect in January. Evergreen is currently analyzing how sequestration would affect our institution, and will be prepared to respond to OFM if the need arises.

The Government Relations office will continue to monitor Congress’ efforts and report as information becomes available.

The Washington State Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) Committee met Tuesday, July 24 to discuss the status of the GET program and to establish a new unit price. Established in 1998, the GET program is Washington’s 529 pre-paid tuition savings plan.

The Committee heard updates on the program as well as a presentation by the State Actuary on the status of the program. GET has sold 9,611 new accounts this year resulting in 943,718 new units. Although the program sold enough to remain solvent (over 900,000), it did fall short of its goal of selling over 1.5 million units.

The Committee also agreed to a $9 increase in the unit price for the 2012-2013 enrollment period beginning in November. The $9 increase will bring the cost of 1 GET unit to $172.

The Washington State Revenue Forecast Council released updated numbers for the month of July and the news is good … modestly. Revenues since the mid-June forecast were $66.5 million above the agency’s initial forecast.  But, according to The Olympian, interim forecaster Steve Lerch sounded a note of caution. “Due to the high variability of monthly Revenue Act receipts, it is too soon to tell whether this month’s Revenue Act variance represents a real increase in collections or if it will be at least partially reversed next month.”

Lerch goes on to caution that the the June’s ” US employment report of only 80,000 new jobs indicates  that the labor market remains weak and businesses are cautious about adding new workers. To put this in context, employment gains of approximately 160,000 each month for the next year would be needed to reduce the unemployment rate by 0.5%.

He also warns that the the Washington economy continues to grow at a moderate pace and, much like the national experience, Washington employment growth has slowed down after a strong start at the beginning of the year. 

These higher collections and recent caseload forecasts push the state’s total general fund reserves, including the Rainy Day Fund, above $410 million through June 2013.

You can access the full report here.