Senate committee gets first look at proposal for new state-level education agency

A draft proposal expected to be in the hands of legislators later this month will recommend creating a new state Office of Student Achievement to focus on increasing educational attainment from preschool through college.

Members of the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee heard a briefing on the proposal last week from Leslie Goldstein, higher education policy advisor for Gov. Chris Gregoire.  Over the summer and fall, the Governor chaired the Higher Education Steering Committee, a group created by the Legislature to propose responsibilities for a new Council for Higher Education (CHE), which is slated to replace the HECB in July.

The proposal likely to emerge from the steering committee would create an entity with broader responsibilities than higher education alone. The new Office of Student Achievement would replace the HECB. Its responsibilities would include coordination and planning among all state education entities, including the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Department of Early Learning.

The Office of Student Achievement proposal outlined by Goldstein was compared by some legislators to Gov. Gregoire’s earlier proposal for a new state Department of Education. That proposal was opposed by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn and others, and did not pass in the last legislative session.

Goldstein said the Office of Student Achievement would be very different from the previously-proposed Department of Education.  Rather than having responsibility for actually governing and managing P-20 educational programs, the new office would be tasked with providing better policy coordination among the entities. It would not change the existing relationships among state-level agencies and local educational providers, such as between OSPI and local school districts, or SBCTC and community and technical colleges, Goldstein said.

The proposed new office would incorporate duties now performed by the HECB, the State Board of Education, and the Educational Research and Data Center, which is currently housed in the Office of Financial Management.  The proposal would not create a separate state office to manage student financial aid programs, as enacted in the CHE legislation. Financial aid administration would remain with the new office. 

Under the proposal outlined by Goldstein, the Office of Student Achievement would have an executive director appointed by the Governor and an advisory board comprised of six citizens and five representatives from state education agencies and higher education institutions. Two non-voting members would represent private independent K-12 schools and the Independent Colleges of Washington.

Goldstein said steering committee consultants and some members have concerns about the P-20 scope of the new agency and prefer a board comprised exclusively of citizen members, similar to the existing HECB, rather than one consisting of a mix of citizens and institutional and stakeholder representatives. She predicted the draft proposal expected later this month will be a “consensus document” of the steering committee, “with some concerns expressed as well.”  

Wild first day of special session brings pleas from education and social service advocates

The story told by a 20-year-old Seattle Central Community College student perhaps best illustrates the points made by advocates for both education and social services at a boisterous public hearing Monday on the Governor’s supplemental budget proposal.

Jessica Foster told members of the House Ways & Means Committee she grew up making weekly trips to the food bank for groceries. The first home the family owned was provided by Habitat for Humanity. As a child, she received medical coverage under the state’s Basic Health Plan, but she has since been dropped and is now uninsured.    

However, Foster said she didn’t come to the hearing to tell the committee a “sob story.”  She also wanted it put on the record that she has a 3.7 grade point average in college and is one quarter away from earning an associate degree in elementary education. That will be the highest level of educational attainment anyone in her family has ever achieved.

Foster works full time to cover college costs not provided by student financial aid and scholarships. Even so, she said, she’s unsure if she’ll be able to afford the bachelor’s and master’s degrees that are her next steps toward an eventual teaching certificate in Washington.  

“I don’t want to be a millionaire, but I want to be a teacher who changes lives,” Foster said. Some of the social service programs that are now on the “chopping block” make it possible for people like her to strive for a better way to live, she said.

“By investing in K through 12 and higher education—community colleges especially—you are investing in your future because I am your future,” she added.

The all-cuts supplemental budget proposed by the Governor addresses a projected $1.4 billion drop in state revenue by reducing state spending another $2 billion over the remainder of the 2011-13 biennium. The reductions include a $160.1 million cut for public colleges and universities, and suspension of the State Work Study program for low-income students, saving about $8 million.  

The Governor’s budget director, Marty Brown, on Monday called the budget proposal a choice of “least-worst alternatives.”  To buy back some of the proposed cuts—including the reduction for public colleges and universities—the Governor has proposed a temporary half-cent increase in the state sales tax. The increase would have to be approved by either the Legislature or the voters.

Representatives of the state’s two-year and four-year public colleges and universities also spoke Monday against additional cuts to higher education. They said those reductions would further reduce access to higher education at a time when the state needs more highly educated workers to fill many jobs that currently go unfilled, even in today’s down economy.

They said additional cuts in appropriations would come on top of nearly a 50 percent reduction in state higher education funding since the recession began.  The new budget reductions would raise that to about 65 percent.

The additional reductions in state support could increase pressure on colleges and universities to raise tuition, further reducing affordability for many low- and middle-income students in Washington. 

Proposed higher ed cuts could be avoided through revenue measures suggested by Governor

With the Legislature set to begin work next Monday on fixes to the state budget, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Monday offered a supplemental budget proposal that would cut additional millions in state support for higher education and suspend funding for the State Work Study (SWS) program during FY 2012.

The Governor’s plan for responding to a projected $1.4 billion revenue shortfall for the remainder of the biennium also would cut additional millions from K-12, health and human services, and corrections.

While the Governor’s budget proposal assumes no new sources of revenue, she acknowledged that program cuts of the magnitude she is proposing “would do serious damage to the state’s safety net and jeopardize our students’ future.” Therefore, she asked the Legislature to consider approving or asking voters to approve a number of revenue-generating options, including a public vote on a temporary half-cent increase in the state sales tax. That would raise an additional $494 million through June 30, 2013.

Among other things, the additional sales tax money would be used to prevent an additional $160 million reduction in state support for the state’s six public four-year colleges and universities, and 34 community and technical colleges. 

Other potential revenue-generating options would restore additional cuts based upon a priority list offered by the Governor. The list includes restoration of approximately $8 million for the SWS program.

Suspending the SWS program would mean that approximately 3,500 low- and middle-income college students in Washington would lose annual paychecks averaging $3,000—money they use to pay their college expenses. Nearly 2,000 Washington employers would be forced to look for other ways to make up for the loss of productivity they generated by SWS employees.

The HECB has posted additional information about the impacts of suspending the SWS program.

Cuts in student aid and college budgets proposed to help ease state budget crisis

A package of possible state spending cuts—including a proposed 15 percent ($166 million) reduction in state support for public colleges and universities, and the suspension of all remaining State Work Study funding ($8 million) —was proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire Thursday.

A budget document prepared with the assistance of the Office of Financial Management noted a range of possible budget cuts across many areas of government.

To help ensure transparency in the budget development process, the Governor took the unusual step of announcing likely elements of her budget proposal before the proposal is ready to be delivered to the Legislature and the public.

At a Thursday morning news conference, the Governor said she expected that her proposals will generate feedback from communities and stakeholder groups that could lead to changes in the list of cuts she will include in her official state budget proposal.  “But not much—our options are limited,” the Governor said.

HECB Executive Director Don Bennett said today that he already has urged the Governor’s staff and key legislative representatives not to suspend the State Work Study program, even if preserving it would mean a slight reduction in the State Need Grant (SNG) program.

Later in the day, at a meeting of the Higher Education Steering Committee, which includes representatives from baccalaureate and two-year institutions,  the Governor again alluded to the difficult choices the state will have to make to deal with the current budget crisis, and the potential impact those decisions could have on higher education. “I’m surprised some of you are talking to me,” the Governor remarked to committee members.

Governor Gregoire has called the Legislature in for a special session, beginning Nov. 28, to address a projected $1.4 billion shortfall in state revenue for the remainder of the 2011-13 biennium. In light of the shortfall, the Governor has proposed a $2 billion spending reduction in the biennial budget.  

“I don’t want anyone to think that I like these options,” the Governor said. “The list of options I’ve presented hurts. This is not what I signed up for when I started as a caseworker 40 years ago. But it’s what the world economy handed our state and our country.”

Another budget cutting proposal that has been mentioned but not recommended by the Governor is elimination or reduction of the State Need Grant (SNG) program (up to $303 million). The SNG program annually provides financial assistance to 72,000 low-income students in Washington.  

Also on the table but not recommended by the Governor is an even deeper 20 percent reduction ($222 million) in General Fund support  for the state’s six public baccalaureate institutions and 34 community and technical colleges. 

The Governor’s recommended 15 percent reduction would come on top of a 24 percent reduction in state funding for public colleges and universities approved earlier this year.

To partly offset the impact of continuing cuts to higher education, the Legislature earlier this year granted the baccalaureate institutions expanded flexibility to raise tuition.

More information on the budget reduction alternatives is available on the Office of Financial Management website.

Governor convenes special legislative session Nov. 28 to perform “brutal” work of cutting budget

Gov. Chris Gregoire is calling the Legislature into special session for up to 30 days starting Nov. 28, to work on a supplemental budget that could trim an additional $2 billion in state spending over the remainder of the 2011-13 biennium, which began July 1.

The $2 billion budget cut proposed by the Governor at a press conference Thursday is larger than the $1.4 billion revenue shortfall announced earlier this month by the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

At the news conference, the Governor said additional cuts to public schools and colleges appear to be “unavoidable,” but she did not provide specifics.  Those will come when the Governor submits her supplemental budget proposal to the Legislature prior to the start of the special session.

Other major program areas that are likely to see significant cuts are in social services, health care and corrections.

One of the reasons the Governor chose Nov. 28 for the start of the special session is that it follows the next state revenue forecast on Nov. 17, when more bad news for the state budget is expected.

The $2 billion in cuts will have to be found in the $8.7 billion portion of the state budget that is not protected by state or federal law.  Higher education funding is one of the discretionary items in the budget.

Today was the deadline for state agencies under the Governor’s direct control to offer ways of cutting their budgets by 10 percent.  However, a 10 percent reduction would not be enough to solve the size of the current budget problem, and even if it was, applying it equally across all agencies could lead to unacceptable public safety problems, the Governor said.

Governor Gregoire said the state no longer has the ability to take a “Pac Man” approach of balancing the budget by taking little bites out of programs or services.  “We’re beyond that now. We have to admit there are some things we can no longer do,” she said.

The Governor said she wants the Legislature to wrap up work on the supplemental budget in December so legislators can focus on ways to create more jobs when the regular session begins in January.

Notification of location change

The June 30 meeting of the Higher Education Coordinating Board has been moved to Seattle Central Community College, starting at 9 a.m.

The agenda and board meeting materials will be linked to from this page of our website next week.

Governor signs four bills with far-reaching implications for state’s higher education system

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Monday signed legislation that could lead to a significant rebalancing of state higher education funding, alter the higher education governing structure, create new sources of student financial aid, and require a review later this year of purchase prices set under the state’s prepaid college tuition program.

In a statement after the bill signing, the Governor recalled the work of the Higher Education Funding Task Force, which she created last year to develop proposals to better fund colleges and universities at a time when state revenues were declining.  The bills signed during a ceremony in Seattle are the product of that effort, she said.

They include E2SHB 1795, the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which gives public baccalaureate institutions authority to set tuition rates for the next four academic years, and for another four years after that with some restrictions.  Institutions would be required to provide additional financial assistance to low- and middle-income students if they impose tuition hikes larger than those assumed in the state operating budget.

“Despite these tough economic times, our colleges and universities must have the resources to educate and train the next generation of engineers, scientists and workers,” the Governor’s statement said.  “Tuition flexibility will allow them to set their own tuition through 2019, so it is competitive with similar colleges and universities in other Global Challenge States.”

Tuition increases assumed in the state budget range from 11 to 16 percent.  Those assumed increases, coupled with a 24 percent reduction in state appropriations, mean that the trend in recent years toward a greater reliance on tuition to fund the state’s higher education system will continue.

On Monday, Washington State University became the first baccalaureate institution to take advantage of the new tuition flexibility. According to a university news release, the Board of Regents approved a proposal to raise tuition for resident undergraduates by 16 percent next year.

The Governor also signed E2SSB 5182, which creates a steering committee to propose duties for a new Council on Higher Education, which would replace the HECB on July 1, 2012.  The bill also establishes by July 1, 2012 a new Office of Student Financial Assistance to assume administrative duties now performed by the HECB related to state financial aid programs and the Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) program.

Another bill signed by the Governor, ESHB 2088 (the Opportunity Scholarship Act), establishes two new public/private scholarship accounts for low- and middle-income students enrolled in high employer demand studies and other bachelor's degree programs in Washington.  A third public/private fund would support institutional proposals that increase bachelor’s degree production in high employer demand and other fields.

The Governor on Monday thanked Boeing and Microsoft, which announced they were pledging $50 million contributed over five years to the new Opportunity Scholarship program. Although the private contributions will help ease the burden of tuition increases on many students, they are not likely to come anywhere near meeting the need for financial aid among eligible low- and middle-income students.

The state budget approved by the Legislature and now awaiting action by the Governor includes an additional $107.3 million to offset expected tuition increases on the number of students already being served, but it does not include money to serve additional eligible students. Last year, approximately 22,000 eligible students did not receive State Need Grant assistance because the budgeted funds did not stretch far enough. 

Serving that many additional students in the next biennium would cost an additional $226 million, according to an HECB estimate.

The final higher education bill signed by the Governor was ESSB 5749, which concerns the state’s GET program. In light of the new tuition-setting authority granted in E2SHB 1795, the GET bill requires the program’s governing body to work with the state Actuary to assess whether changes are needed for GET units purchased on or after Sept. 1, 2011.

GET units are based on resident undergraduate tuition at the state’s most expensive public university—either the University of Washington or Washington State University.  One hundred GET units purchased today guarantees a student one year of tuition and state-mandated tuition in the future, no matter how much tuition rates have risen in the meantime.

A report during the legislative session from the state Actuary affirmed the financial soundness of the existing GET program. The additional assessment of GET unit pricing, payout value and the enrollment year schedule will help ensure the continued soundness of the program in the face of tuition changes resulting from enactment of E2SHB 1795.