The FY2020 Labor-HHS-Education bill is scheduled to be marked up by the Appropriations subcommittee this afternoon. The bill would fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at $41.1 billion, an increase of $2 billion above the final FY2019 level and $6.9 billion above the Trump Administration’s request. The bill also funds student financial aid and higher education programs. For details on proposed funding levels, read more from Federal Relations.
While the University of Washington has a “world of impact” and is the University “for Washington,” the majority of our students, staff and faculty call Northeast Seattle home. UW’s Seattle campus, the U District offices for Co-Motion and UW’s pediatric dental clinic at Sand Point are just the most visible signs of UW life in Seattle City Council District 4 (D4). With so many and so much calling D4 home, here’s a quick primer on the current municipal electoral excitement in our neighborhood.
First, D4 City Councilmember Rob Johnson recently stepped down from his seat on April 5and now the Council finds itself needing to fill his seat with someone who can serve between now and the end of November when the City Council election results are certified. The Council’s rules and the City Charter set a 20-day clock and process for filling the seat. You can find everything you need to know about the candidates for the interim position and the Council’s process here.
Thirteen people are now vying for the appointment to this open seat. The Council will hold a moderated public forum with the applicants this Monday evening, April 15 in City Hall, followed by formal presentations by the candidates to Councilmembers on April 17. Final selection by the Council is slated for April 22. The person selected will represent D4, chair the Council’s Land Use Committee, and shape the City budget for 2020 before being replaced by the winner of this fall’s election.
Turning from the D4 interim appointment to this year’s election, an important reminder – Seattle’s Council is made up of nine separately elected members serving four-year terms. Two members serve at-large and were up for election two years ago. The remaining seven are by district and up for election this year. For this year’s district races, there will be a primary in August and a general election in November. May 17 is the candidate filing deadline. Already, 10 people have filed campaign paperwork with Seattle Ethics & Elections to run for the D4 seat.
The months between now and election day November 5 will provide many opportunities for UW students, staff and faculty to meet the candidates for D4 and the other districts in Seattle. (By the way, King County Council seats are up, too.) Housing affordability, transit operations, utility costs, unsheltered homelessness, taxation, parks – the D4 councilmember will have a hand in it all, but they’ll be better at their job if they hear from you. Oh, and those Democracy Vouchers you received in the mail? Go here to learn how to use them. Your voice and your vote matter!
The Trump administration released its FY 2020 budget request today. President Trump’s budget is the first step in the annual Congressional appropriations cycle, with actual spending levels controlled by Congress. The proposal outlines increased military spending and domestic spending cuts. It also includes changes to student loan repayment plans and other initiatives of interest to the UW community. Read more from the Office of Federal Relations.
It is pretty rare during the hectic days of a legislative session to can take a short break from committee hearings and member meetings to immerse yourself in some of the latest thinking about the challenges facing higher education in the United States in 2019. But last Wednesday in Olympia, about 50 representatives from public and private higher education institutions and associations had the chance to do just that when representatives from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences paid a visit to the state capital to discuss their most recent report “The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America.”
Completed last year, the report focuses on three challenges currently facing undergraduate education – completion, quality and affordability. Each of these issues is also top of mind for the UW as well as our fellow baccalaureate and community and technical college partners. Michael McPherson from the Spencer Foundation, who co-chaired the Commission which completed the report, and Sandy Baum from the Urban Institute, a Commission member, walked us through the reports major findings a recommendations for policymakers.
Perhaps one of the most important conclusions is that “access” to higher education is not as much of an issue as it was a generation or two ago. More than 90% of U.S. students managed to find their way into a two or four year institution within a few years of high school graduation. The major challenge facing higher education today is completion – insuring that students finish their two or four year degree and are able to secure a family wage job upon graduation. Some barriers to completion are surely financial and so affordability remains an important goal for state policymakers who are working this session to make the State Need Grant an entitlement program so that is will be protected from future economic downturns.
But there are other barriers to degree completion that require greater investments in two and four year institutional budgets to ensure quality faculty and staff, sufficient courses, adequate academic, transfer and mental health counseling – all key ingredients to ensuring students can persist to a two or four year credential. It’s a solid report and the lunchtime event sponsored by the College Promise Coalition was a unique chance to pause in the middle of a busy legislative session to refocus on the important reasons why we are all pushing to have elected officials make 2019 the year of higher education.
We have already started week 6 of the 2019 legislative session and that means that cutoff deadlines for committees are quickly approaching. In the past two weeks, the Senate voted to confirm Kaitlyn Zhou to the UW’s Board of Regents and campus representatives visited Olympia to advocate on behalf of university priorities. Speaker Frank Chopp testified before the House College & Workforce Development committee on his first prime sponsored legislation in 20 years. Read more from State Relations.