April 19, 2011
Special Session Likely as WA Senate Passes Budget with 6 Days to Spare
The Washington State Senate passed its budget last night after adopting two floor amendments. The budget cuts, compensation reductions, and policy issues we outlined were not amended in any substantive way in the engrossed budget passed by the Senate last night. Readers can examine the evolution of the House and Senate versions in detail here and here….
April 15, 2011
Fast Track to Graduation: WA Senate Bill 5442
In an effort to give more students the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree and enter the workforce early, the legislature passed SB 5442, “Requiring the development of three-year baccalaureate degree programs.” The bill, which was delivered to the Governor for approval on April 12th, requires institutions of higher education to provide degree programs that…
April 13, 2011
WA Senate Budget: Deeper Cuts, Higher Tuition, Compensation Reductions
Senate Ways & Means leadership released their bipartisan budget last night after a 7PM press conference. Budget reductions total $4.8 billion and the largest cuts are targeted to K12 education, higher education, employee compensation across all sectors of state governemnt, and basic health. The UW’s general fund appropriation is cut more in the Senate budget ($217 million) than…
April 12, 2011
State House of Reps Passes Operating Budget Saturday
After considering numerous floor amendments last Friday evening, the House passed their operating budget on Saturday afternoon. The House budget appropriates $32.2 billion in general fund state operating funds and makes significant cuts to health and human services, K-12 education, and higher education. Like the House Ways & Means chair budget, the engrossed budget cuts $204 million…
April 11, 2011
Tuition-Setting Authority Coupled with Accountability: Two Bills Propose Reforms
Preserving the access to and quality of higher education is paramount in the face of massive budget cuts. Two bills, HB 1795 (Enacting the higher education opportunity act) and SB 5915 (Regarding higher education funding and performance), seek to achieve this goal by: 1. Giving tuition-setting authority to universities 2. Reforming Financial Aid 3. Strengthening…
April 8, 2011
A Master Plan for Higher Ed in the Midwest?
Earlier this week, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released a new report authored by current professor and former University of Michigan President James Duderstadt. The report, A Master Plan for Higher Education in the Midwest: A Roadmap to the Future of the Nation’s Heartland, chronicles the overall failure of the Midwest to transform itself…
April 6, 2011
Quest for Greater Autonomy for Public Higher Ed Continues
As state legislative season wears on, here is an update on some of the efforts in other states to achieve greater financial and regulatory freedom for public higher education institutions facing another year of steep budget cuts. Virginia: The legislature passed the Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011. For details on the major aims…
April 5, 2011
Finally, House Operating and Capital Budget Details
The House released operating and capital budgets yesterday for the upcoming biennium (FY12 & FY13). This budget is an important next step in the budget development process in Olympia but we are far from having a final compromise budget. The House operating budget proposal: Cuts state funding for the UW by $204 million over two…
April 1, 2011
Western Governor’s University: WA House Bill 1822
This is the first in a series of blog posts that presents a Washington State Legislative bill that we are tracking and provides more information about what the bill does and why it is relevant to the UW. As the demand for higher education increases, especially among students who are place-bound or have outside commitments…
March 31, 2011
Wherefore art thou, House Operating Budget?
When the revenue forecast was released on March 17, House fiscal leadership indicated that their operating budget would be delayed. We hoped to see a budget on March 21st and then on March 29th. Tomorrow is April 1 and your analysts at OPBlog anticipate having neither budget drafts to write about nor fantastic prank ideas to…