higher education « Washington Policy Watch

January 11, 2012 • 8:36 am 0

Budget cuts since the Great Recession

Excerpted from Washington State Budget 101:

The recession has taken a big toll on jobs and family incomes – and on public revenue. The state has mostly cut services, not raised revenue, resulting in $10.5 billion in cuts. (Note: Federal aid in 2009-10, rainy day funds, and fee increases prevented deeper cuts.)

Cuts from 2009-11 include:

K-12 education: Elimination of student achievement funds & teacher cost of living adjustments; 7,000 fewer K-12 employees.
Higher ed: 4-yr college funding reduced 40%, 2-yr reduced 20%, with large tuition increases.
Health care: 60,000 cut from Basic Health.
Children’s services: Fewer children receiving health, childcare, and other services.
Elder care: Reduced home-care hours for vulnerable seniors and disabled.
Cuts to state agencies: Consolidation of state agencies, elimination of jobs.
State employees: Mandatory furloughs and higher contributions for health insurance.

Filed under: tax and budget, budget cuts, elder care, health care, higher education, k-12 education, wa state

January 6, 2012 • 9:07 am 0

Four new economic development policies to help us recover from the recession

Stan Sorscher, EOI Board Member

Guest post by Stan Sorscher (cross-posted from Huffington Post)

Let’s look at public policies for economic development that help us recover from the recession.

In one view of economic development, the role of government is to “make business succeed.” In this view, government should get out of the way and let markets find the most efficient outcome.

An alternative view of economic development is that government policies should raise our standard of living. In this view, government plays an active role in devising trade and industrial policies that attract investment, build industrial capacity, and create good jobs that build the middle class. And make business succeed.

To be sure, markets are powerful and efficient, but markets fail. In particular, markets fail to serve non-economic interests — not just the environment, human rights, labor rights, and public health, but markets also under-invest in R&D, education, physical infrastructure and social safety nets.

Globalization has sharpened the difference in these two approaches, by de-coupling investor and business interests from the public interest. If investors are global in their outlook, then the interests of America dim from view.

In a global economy where national boundaries are blurred, we need to think about trade and industrial policies that work for America. A year ago, I mentioned 4 policies that would help reconnect the interests of investors with public interests and communities. Here are four more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: EOI, state economy, business, economic development, Employment, export-import bank, globalization, government, higher education, industrial bonds, markets, policy, public good, public interest, recession, tax incentives, united states, worker training

June 22, 2011 • 11:23 am 0

Lip-service investments in higher ed

From the Everett Herald:

John Burbank, Executive Director

Two weeks ago, Gov. Chris Gregoire convened a press conference with corporate leaders from Microsoft and Boeing. They were celebrating a breakthrough in higher education.

It was a breakthrough, all right — like 60,000 high school graduates walking out onto thin ice and breaking through. The troika offered a life ring for 1,000, through “Opportunity Scholarships.” The other 59,000? Let them swim … or sink.

Let’s consider what really happened to public higher education this year. The Legislature cut out almost a fifth of funding for higher education: $617.5 million. It raised tuition at the University of Washington by 35 percent in two years, and by 25 percent at community colleges.

Boeing and Microsoft? Gregoire was praising them because they committed $5 million a year each, totaling 1.62 percent of the shortfall. That contribution wasn’t free — the state, that is the taxpayers, had to make a down payment of $5 million, moving money out of public services and into a corporate-controlled nonprofit. And our state will have to do that year in and year out in order to get the corporate crumbs. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: education, boeing, higher education, microsoft, taxes

June 15, 2011 • 10:50 am 5

Education pays – but at what cost? WA tuition increases threaten long-term economic prosperity

As the saying goes, “education pays.”

But with another round of tuition increases at Washington’s public universities this fall, the rising cost of college – and how to pay for it – is becoming a significant barrier to potential students.

This coming academic year, double-digit percentage increases in tuition are planned at the University of Washington, Washington State University, Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Western Washington University and the Evergreen State College.

These increases represent a 180% increase in tuition and fees at the UW since 2000, 166% at WSU, about 140% (on average) for comprehensive institutions, and is likely to be upward of 100% for community and technical colleges (2011-12 tuition and fees at those institutions will be decided later this month).

These increases will continue the ‘brain drain’, pushing highly qualified students to out-of-state universities, and deterring otherwise-qualified students from enrolling due to sticker shock. But these short-term effects will have long-term consequences on Washington’s future economic productivity.

Despite diminishing investments in higher education, demand for trained and educated graduates will only increase. Washington’s Higher Education Coordinating Board predicts 67% of Washington jobs will require a college degree by 2018.
Some students will choose to apply to trade school or enroll in one of Washington’s community colleges instead of a university. But state budget cuts have limited enrollment at these institutions and phased out programs that lead to jobs – making it difficult for even the most capable high school graduates to find training or gainful employment post-graduation.
Fewer students may choose college because of high “sticker” prices, despite the clear economic incentive: college graduates at every level earn about 66% more than the typical high school graduate over a lifetime.

Unmanageable tuition increases, paired with continuing cuts to higher education – set for half a billion dollars this biennium – will have effects far beyond this recession. Such drastic cuts in state support represents a systemic shift in public priorities, limiting the achievement of our homegrown leaders and holding back Washington’s future economic prosperity.

Filed under: education, higher education, public schools, public value, University of Washington

Washington Policy Watch

Budget cuts since the Great Recession

Four new economic development policies to help us recover from the recession

Lip-service investments in higher ed

Education pays – but at what cost? WA tuition increases threaten long-term economic prosperity

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