Washington Research Council Blog

Seattle Times, Microsoft executive urge action on higher education

Sunday's Seattle Times carried a strong editorial page call to action. "Losing kids on the path to prosperity" charts a course from early learning through higher education. Editorial page editor Kate Riley explains the urgency.

The state of Washington's education system — and by system, we mean the ways we educate our citizens from birth through graduate school — is imperiled. State decision-makers over the years have prioritized many things over this core function of government, which underpins our economy and quality of life.

She singles out a significant higher education gap.

The state's higher-ed institutions are economic engines in their communities, educating our own citizens to take the jobs our businesses offer. But there is a gap: Even in this era of high unemployment, many jobs in our state want for qualified Washington applicants.

Elsewhere on the page, Microsoft General Counsel and EVP Brad Smith makes the case for widespread reform, noting that the budget challenge creates an opportunity to make substantial progress.

The education debate this legislative session cannot be limited to a conversation about funding. Because the solution is not just investment; it requires putting our dollars into what works in helping students succeed. Student success is the single most important outcome against which our teachers and schools should be measured. And it is toward that outcome that our public resources should be directed.

I encourage you to read the whole thing. 

Moving ahead with education reform despite state budget challenges

Last Friday, I noted that education reform dominated the first week of the legislative session. A good op-ed by Dean Allen, CEO of McKinstry Co. and current chair of the Washington Roundtable, explains the urgency.

By 2018, two out of three family-wage jobs in our state will require post-secondary education or training. Yet, on average, nearly 30 percent of our students don't graduate from high school. Of those who do, 50 percent can't demonstrate proficiency in math, and 50 percent of students who enroll in our community colleges need remedial training, most often in math. 

To make matters worse, Washington is one of fewer than 10 states in the country in which achievement gaps between white students and students of color are growing.

...we can all agree ... that changes are needed if we truly desire success for all kids.

He emphasizes the reforms rolled out last week, including better systems of performance evaluation and charter schools. Read the whole thing. Funding questions, he notes, should not preclude action today.

It's tempting to think that nothing can be done right now, given the budget crises hindering our state and local governments, but we can put ourselves on an aggressive path toward improvement by making certain no-cost or low-cost changes in concert with modest public investments and community and business support.

The News Tribune editorial board reaches the same conclusion.

Washington’s schools do need better funding – but their need for better thinking is more fundamental and more urgent. Especially when money is tight and every possible advantage must be wrung out of every precious dollar.

The schools need a bundle of reforms. 

See also this Walla Walla Union-Bulletin editorial supporting charter schools.

Finally, here's Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn's statement on education reforms.

Education reforms top first week of legislative session

The first week of the 2012 legislature draws to a close this cool Friday the 13th of January. Encouragingly, education reform has found substantial bipartisan support. In the Seattle Times, Brian Rosenthal has a good overview of yesterday's action.

Declaring that traditional methods have failed, a bipartisan group of lawmakers formally introduced a pair of bills Thursday that could shake up education policy in the state — if they survive what is sure to be a contentious debate.

The proposals would allow charter schools into the state, establish a process for failing schools to be taken over by outside organizations and continue an overhaul of the way all teachers and principals are evaluated.

Where Rosenthal sees "contentious debate," Erik Smith at Washington State Wire sees a new war in education. The legislators proposing the measures have substantial support from groups that have been long-time leaders in education reform.

Standing with them are the Washington Roundtable, the association that represents the state’s largest businesses; Washington Stand for Children, a grass-roots organization that urges education reform and funding, the League of Education Voters and the Partnership for Learning, among others.

 On the other side, the Washington Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, announced its ongoing opposition to charter schools. Read Smith's story for more details. 

In the Senate, the bills have been introduced as SB 6202 (charter schools) and SB 6203 (teacher and principal evaluation systems).

For how the evaluation measures differ from the governor's proposal, here's Jordan Schrader's account in The News Tribune.

Sen. Rodney Tom, one of the sponsors of the reform measures, has an informative video discussion of reforms and the budget.

In my column on last weeks state Supreme Court ruling that the state was not meeting its paramount duty of making "ample provision for the education" of Washington children I wrote:

Increased funding cannot be easily separated from increased accountability and reform.

There's a lot of session left to go, but it's encouraging to see education reform high on the legislative agenda, with solid bipartisan support.

Microsoft & Boeing announce $50 million scholarship fund

Today, coincident with the governor's signing higher education bills, Boeing and Microsoft pledge $25 million each to fund scholarships for students in high-demand fields.

This is very good news, as the governor points out.

...our colleges and universities must have the resources to educate and train the next generation of engineers, scientists and workers. 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...

She points out that with tuition going up, additional financial aid will be required to maintain access for low- and middle-income students. And she adds,

"Thanks to Boeing and Microsoft for their generous contributions to the Opportunity Scholarship Program and for their partnership and support.”

The statement from Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith, who chaired the governor's higher education funding task force, is here.

News stories here and here.

In our recent Thrive Washington paper, we had this to say about higher education funding.

Governor Chris Gregoire’s Higher Education Funding Task Force released its recommendations in early 2011.  The Task Force proposed that the state give public four-year universities more tuition flexibility; establish an endowment for Washington Pledge Scholarships that would be managed by a non-profit and funded with both state and voluntary private contributions; strengthen university accountability; and increase the number of graduates, especially with STEM-related degrees.  Enacting these recommendations would provide more stable and predictable long-term funding and improve retention and graduation rates.  This is important throughout the higher education system, particularly in high demand programs and STEM related fields.

A big step forward was taken today.

Update on Higher Education Tuition

Last week, we posted a policy brief comparing the House and Senate budgets’ treatments of higher education. Both budgets propose significant tuition hikes on state-resident undergraduate students, with the increases in the Senate budget somewhat greater than those in the House budget (11–16 percent vs. 11–13 percent).

These proposals are now irrelevant, however. Early this week both chambers approved Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1795. This bill gives the four-year institutions authority to set their own resident undergraduate tuition rates for the next eight academic years. Gov. Gregoire has said that she will sign the bill (Seattle Times story here).

New Brief on Higher Education in the 2011-13 Budgets

We have posted a new policy brief on higher education in the House and Senate budgets, titled "Higher Education: State Funding Down, Tuition Up." It is available through this link.

Briefly:

Under the House budget, NGFS+ funding for higher education would be $2.81 billion, while under the Senate budget it would be  $2.84 billion. Either amount would be 20.5 percent less than the $3.58 billion budgeted for 2007–09, which was the peak biennium for higher education funding.

New Brief on How Public Schools Fare in 2011-13 Budgets

Following last week's brief on proposed 2011-13 expenditures in the human services budget area, today we take a look at public schools.  (See also this brief for an overview of the House and Senate budget plans.)

Spending on public schools would increase over 2009-11 levels in both the House- and Senate-passed budgets.  Maintenance level changes would increase spending by $2.158 billion.  Policy changes in the House budget would reduce spending by $1.307 billion, while the Senate would make policy reductions totaling $1.535 billion.

Many of the reductions come in the areas of class size and school employee compensation.

Keeping the best teachers in the classroom when it's necessary to downsize

That's my subject in today's Everett Herald column.

Right now, layoffs are handled by seniority -- last hired, first fired, with no regard for teacher performance. A pair of bills (HB 1609 and SB 5399) would create a performance-based system for staff reductions.

The legislation calls for making layoff decisions based on teachers' average evaluation ratings for the most recent two years (one year if only one is available). Teachers with the lowest average evaluations get laid off first. Seniority, rather than being the sole criterion, comes into play only in case of a tie, when two teachers have the same evaluation scores.

The public likes the idea.

Last January, the Partnership for Learning and the Excellent Schools Now Coalition surveyed 500 Washington voters on education issues.

A remarkable 81 percent of those polled agreed that "if a district is facing layoffs, teachers should be retained based on their performance in raising student achievement, not how many years they have been teaching."

So does the academic research, as I report in the column. What do you think?

An Oscar miss on an education breakthrough

As I rarely go to movies and don't own a TV, my thoughts on the Academy Awards are not worth sharing. So I'll just refer you to AWB president Don Brunell's post on Waiting for Superman.

 

Tuition Transfer Update

As I discussed in an earlier post, the Senate version of the early action supplemental budget cut general fund–state funding to the higher education coordinating board (HEC Board) for the state need grant by $25.4 million. The Senate supplemental budget backfilled this loss in two steps. The first step was an appropriation of $25.4 million from the higher education institutions’ locally-controlled tuition accounts to the state-controlled opportunity pathways account. The second step was an appropriation of $25.4 million from the opportunity pathways account to the HEC Board.

The $25.4 million appropriated to the opportunity pathways account was apportioned across the institutions in this way: University of Washington lost $5,658,000; Washington State University, $3,718,000; Eastern Washington University, $765,000; Central Washington University, $705,000; The Evergreen State College, $386,000; Western Washington University, $1,010,000; and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, $13,143,000.

As finally enacted, the early action supplement budget cuts general fund appropriations to the HEC Board for the state need grant by $25.4 million without providing any backfill from another state account. Instead, the supplemental budget instructs the HEC Board to reduce need grants to the students of the various institutions by the amounts specified in the preceding paragraph and instructs each institution to make up the need grant losses of its students from locally-held funds.

The bottom line is the same for the institutions. However, one could argue that the new arrangement is marginally better than the original, in that it avoids explicitly transferring money from the institutional tuition accounts to a state account.