The discussions of the past two days have reflected our
current budgetary environment, and the challenges faced in funding higher
education as result. On a national level, a budget deficit and a gargantuan
national debt seems to have become business as usual. In Washington state, we are
required to pass a balanced budget every two years. This model recently has
included the need for special sessions to deal with higher than anticipated
budget shortfalls after passing the original budget. One area that has been
especially hard hit with cuts is state supported higher education.
From a historical and cultural perspective, there has been
broad bipartisan support in the U. S. and and in Washington state for the idea that an educated public elevates the
quality of life for all. Representative Carlyle spoke of this in today’s
discussion. Senator Litzow spoke of the lack of qualified candidates to fill
many high-tech positions. Sen. Frocke spoke of a “new paradigm” regarding the
type of society we wanted in the future.This would require a change in
direction, and providing more funding for higher education.
Others feel that as we evaluate and reduce public spending
moving forward, there should be a higher reliance on personal funding and
privatization of higher education.
In a nutshell, the question always boils down to core issues.
What value do we place on higher education as a benefit to
society in general? Do you agree with
Rep. Seaquist, that we are “undereducated” and the future of “our economy and
society” depends on reversing this trend? This would require drastically
increasing access to education and potentially a corresponding increase in
spending. To fund this, do we increase revenues or cut other services? Or do we
allow the private sector to provide education and increase access to education
through tax credits and other incentives? If we make cuts to other social
services, which ones are cut? To what degree can we rely on emerging
educational technologies to assist us in providing quality education? Is blended and online learning a savior, or simply a useful tool?
What are your thoughts?
There is no question that higher education is imperative in ensuring a successful future not only for individuals and the state, but the national as a whole. With tuition increasing nearly 600 percent since the 1980s, a red flag has been raised showing that the system of higher education is not working exactly how it should be. With the rate tuition is increasing, how long will it be before obtaining an education will be strictly for the wealthy in our society. I believe that the value we place on higher education is at an all-time low. There is a high inconsistency of standards that shows we can get through college with a measly 2.0 grade point average and once you do graduate, there is no promise on a career that even relates to the major you graduated with. The problem here is money, and the lack thereof. Senator Steve Litzow points out how this is not a republican or a democratic problem, it branches out to all parties and all demographs. With the nation depending on a future of educated individuals for its success, Representative Larry Seaquist uses statistics to say that this future is looking bleak. 25 year olds are now less educated than their parents, this is a regressive trend that needs to change. There are many solutions to our issue of higher education. Representative Reuven Carlyle discussed how we need more money. This needs to be the real conversation that we have, a discussion about the investment that the state puts into higher education. If we get a return on the investments, that can be a very powerful opportunity for us to seize positive outcomes of our crisis. Representative Hans Zeiger talked about the solution of cutting out three places: regulatory agencies, bureaucracy with state government, and social programs. Higher education is the most important investment we can make and the solution is revenue. The public need to speak up and become active by telling their legislature what kinds of changes should be made.
ReplyDeleteInsightful comments Shannon. What are your personal ideas for solutions? Is the answer new sources of revenue? If so, can you think of novel ways of raising revenues. Obviously what we are doing isn't working.
DeleteIt is clear to me that we do not place value on Higher Education, when it is paramount that it is prioritized. Representative Seaquist stated that we are $800 million in the red. He also stated that health care and the K-12 funding is superseding Higher Education funding. So this is a conundrum, right? How do we prioritize Higher Education over health care and K-12 funds. Senator Frockt had a very intriguing concept. He said that the K-12 situation should be put into context of what we face. And what I pulled away from that was that Higher Ed. is bleeding, and the only thing the government is doing about all of this is deepening the wound. This, like the budget issue, is not a bipartisan crisis. We need Higher Ed. Because of all of the budget cuts to colleges and universities, classes are being dropped. Not by the students, but by the Professors. The school must deal with the cuts, so classes are dropped and students are not learning as efficiently as they could. According to Senator Litzow, Washington is undereducated. 25 year olds are 10% less educated than their parents! The solution that Senator Litzow suggested was a more radical approach to education in general. There was even talk of rebuilding! The bottom line is that Higher Education needs funding, and raising tuition is not going to get the job done. There needs to be serious re-prioritizing to Higher Education, and more revenue is the answer. The journey to the solution, however, is the problem.
ReplyDeleteI found that the conclusion that you drew from the panel to be quite riveting, but maybe a little misleading. For example, your first sentence indicates that nobody cares to fund higher education when that is not the case. The legislators hands are tied by several initiatives and court mandates. But you did, however, later on acknowledge the fact that the reason higher ed is being cut is due to priorities that legislature feels the need to adhere to first, suggesting that higher ed is on the back-burner but is in desperate need of funding. I would have enjoyed to see more of your own ideas than the summation you presented the blog with! What is your opinion about the solution, Jon!
DeleteI like both of your approaches, but I agree to some degree with you Michael. What we need to think about are solutions that are different than the paths we have taken in the past, so we need to think outside of the box. However, new ideas will take strong leadership to implement. While we haven't discussed this much, isn't part of the problem lack of strong leadership. I would suggest that the education situation is a manifestation of a larger problem we have with a leadership void.
DeleteI wrote a lot about higher ed's importance in the first blog discussion, forgetting that the second day was all about the topic... But because it is such an important issue, it is worth mentioning twice! Alarming numbers were thrown around during the second day, such as the number of 25 year olds who were less educated than there parents, and the number of people(800,000) who were 5,10, 20 credits away from finishing a college degree. These numbers bring forth one major question, how can we change this together? Several ideas were tossed around but none that were talked about seriously. I believe getting to the kids while they are young might be the answer for the future. I was a part of the Gear Up program throughout my high school career. Gear Up brought my class to several college campuses every year to spark interest in getting a higher education. I can only speak for myself, but I think this had a huge impact on my decision to seek a post-high school education. If more of these programs were implemented, I think today's youth would find the idea of a post-high school education quite attractive. The problem most face when seeking a higher ed is the cost. The running start program for high school students is a huge help in cutting costs for students but more needs to be done. The steady increase in tuition makes going to college less of a possibility for lower income families and even middle class families as well. I do not believe that cutting government spending is the only possibility as Rep. Hans Zeiger mentioned. I believe an increase in revenue (i.e. raising certain taxes) would help with the funding issue, even a combination of the two ideas would help. I believe the comparison can be made between higher ed and investing in the stock markets, in that you are investing in the hopes that you will see a profitable return. The taxes we could be paying now that would go into making higher ed affordable for students would lead to future innovations that would revolutionize the world and create new economic revenue. Who knows, maybe a student could come up with a way to run an engine off of hydrogen and oxygen, eliminating our country's need for foreign oil and solving our energy crisis or they create the next iPod or iPhone, the possibilities are endless but not without proper education. I know raising taxes is unpopular, especially in this economic climate and politicians running for reelection do not want to become unpopular, but as Rep. Reuven Carlyle said, we need more money.
ReplyDeleteI agree that program that you describe are important. Veing involved in student support at the college level, one quickly learns that early intervention and support, especially with student that may need a bit of extra support for various reasons, is a powerful component in student retention and eventual success.
DeleteI really thought that this was a good post. Your information given about the UW program is astounding. Something that is very clear is that the value of teachers is very high. You could explore how to initiate the closing of the tax loopholes to stop the already bleeding funding to the Higher Ed. programs.Also, other schools are coming into Washington to teacher snipe. I was hoping you could have elaborated more on this issue affecting the quality of education at these state institutions.
DeleteIt’s hard not to remain cynical when you are dealing with issues that are centered towards managing a state budget. As Sen. Ericksen stated, the most ‘easy’ mechanism to gain back some revenue is to raise tuition and make cuts to higher ed; hence, it inevitable to say that as a budgetary analyzer, you will have a propensity to click that easy button. As a society, I believe that the value given to higher ed is dispersed in our citizen population, yet, highly regarded among the legislator representatives, senators, teachers, college students etc. solving the higher ed issue is not a bipartisan issue! There is a lot of optimism among the representatives to reverse this tide and increase our finances in higher ed to make it accessible as a public good. If we are to make these universities as a business, I believe that yes, reversing the uneducated trend will act as a solution to our economy. In regards to Rep. Seaquist’s “undereducated” comment, I believe that this is valid. An issue that is impeding some student’s access to higher ed is the lack of resources, information, and opportunities. There needs to be more programs that facilitate to bridge the gap between the uneducated and the educated masses. Consequently, with a hint of optimism, I say that we need to increase our revenues to pull ourselves out of this ditch. Though what I would really like to emphasize is the use of educational technologies to assist in the quality of education. We are experiencing a paradigm shift in the method of teaching course material. On one hand, a hybrid course can offer a student to work according to their own schedule; on the other hand, professors may have a sense of feeling overwhelmed their level of required interaction. This hybrid approach, at least from my experience, has been phenomenal. I attended NSCC for a short period of time, where I took an organic chemistry course. Because of the travel time and other courses I was taking, I was not able to go to class at NSCC everyday. Fortunately for me, my instructor would post detailed lecture notes online. This helped me immensily because I was able to refer back to the lecture notes, read the textbook, refer to other assignments, and essentially, I was able to work according to my own schedule. I find this to be a helpful tool that can be spread to other colleges. In developing world countries, such as India, there are attempts to post lecture material online so students that are not able to afford school, can still learn from home. The issue is, who provides for the costs to deliver these educational assets? Again, it goes back to, do we make cuts or increase revenue, and who provides for the funding? This is a highly complex process that most often will need a combination of cuts and taxes.
ReplyDeleteI think you wrote very eloquently about the problem and solutions to higher education funding--I liked your use of the 'easy button.' I agree with you that the value given to higher education is mostly found among legislators, educators, and students and there needs to be more programs to bridge the gap between the educated and uneducated. I also agree that there should be more emphasis on educational technologies. I don't think this would cost much to implement and it would be one way of helping students who are strapped financially. I don't think that online courses should completely replace, or are the equivalent to traditional, in-class instruction, but completely online courses are the only avenue for some people and some sort of education is better than none at all.
DeleteThe Easy Button. That's a great image Aman. I think that now we have a much better understanding of the budget,and its effect on higher ed. in the state. I agree with Helen's comments regarding scenarios for solutions. I think you are all to be commended on your focus on finding solutions. This shows an inclination to promote change, rather than simply lamenting the problem. What we need in addition is stronger leadership in government. However, is a whole discussion unto itself!
DeleteI agree that it is hard not to get cynical. But real change in society comes from the bottom up, in a slow cultural evolution. This takes time, but never occurs unless it begins, and then adopted by ever increasing percentages of the society. One example that occurred before the era of most of today's WWU students was the broad shift in the US away from support for the Vietnam war. It was so powerful that eventually a politician who supported the war simply did not get reelected, so eventually the US was forced to pull troops out of Vietnam.
DeleteYou know, with Seaquist’s comments on how high school graduates are uneducated; it leads me to think that the big picture is not being seen. I think we need to get back to the core of education, not simply receiving a diploma or a degree…but receiving an education. In order to receive an education it is important that we have educators that are willing and able to teach the students, an incentive to this a supplemental pay aka higher funding. It’s crucial to have this begin at a young age, not just in higher ed. If it is instilled with children (a strong work ethic and critical thinking) when they are young, it is more likely they will care this on in their later years. This would solve, in part, the problem of under-education, clearly an extremely serious matter.
DeleteShannon, I completely agree that with tuition increases. We are leading ourselves to a highly divided society where not only the wealthy ones are going to receive the benefit of higher ed, but the ones in the low income profile are able to receive financial funds from the government. This divide is affecting the middle class because it is more difficult for them to gain access to higher ed funds. But what really surprises me is that 25 year old statistic that you provide. I myself am shocked to hear that. I think that there seriously needs to be attention drawn to this sector! We need to think of some solution to get possibly those college/university dropouts to finish their degree. We need a solution to have students gain access to these institutions so they can fill the workforce positions that have certain eligibility requirements that require some education.
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