October 11, 2010
Public Sector Workers Paid Less Than Private Sector Counterparts
As the economic crisis has continued to batter state budgets across the nation, the compensation of public employees has become a hot button issue for citizens, politicians, and the media. However, the Economic Policy Institute has released a statistical analysis that shows that, after controlling for education, experience, hours worked, organizational size and personal characteristics,…
October 8, 2010
Increasing Support for Higher Ed not a Taxpayer Priority
The Pew Center on the States teamed up with the Public Policy Institute of California to assess taxpayer attitudes toward state government, budget cuts, and funding priorities during the Great Recession. The survey was conducted in five states– Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois and New York– , which, together, comprise 1/3rd of the nation’s population, 1/3rd…
October 7, 2010
CA to Vote on Budget that would Restore Some UC Funding
The California State Legislature is set to vote on the budget for FY10-11 (current fiscal year) today; 99 days after the start of the fiscal year. Based on negotiations among the gang of five (governor and majority and minority leaders from senate and assembly) the budget should pass. The starting problem for California was a…
October 4, 2010
OPB Web Spotlight
Be sure to regularly check the Spotlight section on the OPB homepage where we post links to important documents and work products that have been posted to our website. Currently you will find links relating to recent budget cuts, and the altered time-line for implementing an activity-based budgeting (ABB) approach at the UW, among other…
Under Federal Fire, For-Profit Colleges Point Finger at Publics
As a result of recent federal scrutiny, the for-profit higher education industry and its supporters have begun to turn their protests toward the unfairness of singling out the for-profit companies while ignoring traditional higher education’s non-profit institutions, particularly public community colleges and four year institutions. Congressional scrutiny of for-profit education companies comes at the same…
Senator Tom Harkin and the HELP Committee Continue to Investigate For-Profit Colleges
The atmosphere was tense on the morning of September 30th as attendees, many of them proponents of the for-profit higher education sector, overflowed into a second room to witness a hearing held by the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP). The hearing, The Federal Investment in For-Profit Education: Are Students Succeeding,…
September 29, 2010
NRC Releases Long Awaited Doctoral Program Rankings
After five years, $4 million and a lot of effort across many institutions, the National Research Council has released an update to their 1995 assessment of doctoral programs. A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Program in the United States analyzes 2005-06 academic year data collected from over 5,000 doctoral programs at over 200 universities. The NRC…
September 24, 2010
National Academies Continue to Sound Alarm Bell on Competitiveness of Research U’s
The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine have sponsored an update to their consequential 2005 report entitled Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. The latest version is called Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5, and can be…
September 23, 2010
Have OPBlog Posts Delivered Directly To You
If you are not familiar with the use of an RSS feed, you can easily get set up through the free Google Reader or through your Microsoft Outlook. Subscribe to our blog and posts will be delivered to you as they are published, which means you will not have to remember to visit our site….
State Budget Deficits Continue To Grow Across US
As the UW works to address the recent 6.3% across the board state budget reduction for Fiscal Year 2011 ($17.1 million for the UW) ordered by Governor Gregoire last week, other states across the country also continue to struggle with growing state budget deficits. While the recession may have technically ended in June 2009, the…