Eligible 8th graders need to hurry to sign up for College Bound Scholarship

Eighth graders who meet financial eligibility requirements have until June 30 to sign up for the College Bound Scholarship program online  or through their school counselor.

The College Bound Scholarship provides an opportunity for students to attend Washington state colleges who might not otherwise because of the cost.  Students can sign up in either the 7^th or 8^th grade, but must have signed up by the end of their 8^th grade year to be eligible.

The first College Bound students, who signed up when the program was launched in 2007, will be eligible to begin receiving their scholarships this fall.  A video clip from a recent local television talk show features a graduating College Bound senior discussing what the program means to her.

The College Bound Scholarship provides tuition (at public institution rates) not covered by other financial aid programs, to eligible high school graduates who enroll at public colleges, universities and other eligible higher education institutions in Washington.

For information on financial eligibility and other requirements, students and parents should visit the College Bound website or talk to their school counselor.

News release: State honors 196 top high school seniors for academics, leadership, service

OLYMPIA – One hundred ninety-six Washington high school seniors have been honored as Washington Scholars or Washington Scholar Alternates in recognition of their academic achievements, leadership, and community service, the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) and the Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP) announced today.

The list of Washington Scholars and Alternates is available on the HECB website at www.hecb.wa.gov/PayingForCollege/StateAid/WashingtonScholars.

The HECB conducts the Washington Scholars selection process in cooperation with the AWSP.

The program annually honors the accomplishments of three high school seniors from each of the state’s 49 legislative districts – a total of 147 students. A Washington Scholar Alternate also is designated from each district. 

“The Washington Scholar designation is one of the most significant honors a student can receive in high school, and it places them in a very select group of highly accomplished young people,” said HECB Executive Director Don Bennett. “The program is a reminder of the importance of providing a strong educational system that enables all students to realize their academic and leadership potential.”   

“This award recognizes more than academic achievement,” said Gary Kipp, AWSP Executive Director, “Washington Scholars give back to their communities and demonstrate leadership in multiple ways.  They are truly well-rounded young people.”

Washington Scholar candidates, who represent the top 1 percent of graduating seniors, are initially nominated by high school principals based on academic, leadership, and community-service accomplishments.  Final recipients are then selected by a 36-member committee of representatives from public and private high schools, state educational agencies, and public and private four-year colleges and universities.

Recipients of Governors' and Opportunity scholarships announced

Forty foster youth from across Washington received scholarships Monday that will help them move beyond their often difficult childhoods and focus on building bright futures through postsecondary education.

Meanwhile, more than 3,000 Washington students are receiving word this month that they’ll be recipients of the first-ever Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, a public-private partnership to help low- and middle-income students continue their educations after high school. Both the Washington State Governors' Scholarship for Foster Youth and Opportunity Scholarship programs are managed by the College Success Foundation.

Washington’s current governor and two former governors were on hand for an event in Seattle Monday to recognize the 40 recipients of this year’s Governors' Scholarship for Foster Youth.  Former Gov. Gary Locke created the scholarship 11 years ago to assist foster youth on the difficult path they often must take to achieve higher education goals. The scholarship is funded with proceeds from the Governor’s Cup, an annual golf tournament.

Governor’s Scholarships range from $2,000 to $4,000 per year, depending on the college the student attends.  In order to qualify, applicants must be a ward of the court, be enrolled in a Washington state high school as a senior and be scheduled for graduation, have lived in the state at least three academic years, and have maintained good grades.

Governor Chris Gregoire was joined by former governors John Spellman and Mike Lowry at the ceremony to honor the 40 Governors' Scholarship recipients. 

Alluding to the sometimes difficult circumstances her family faced when she was growing up, Governor Gregoire said she understood how much this year’s scholarship recipients probably want to put the “tough times” behind them.  “I know you want to build something good for yourselves—build your own families, build your own communities—and this day is the beginning of the building of that great future,” she said.

The Washington State Opportunity Scholarship is open to high school seniors through college seniors who plan to attend colleges and universities in Washington for the entire 2012-13 academic year.  A student must be a Washington resident, maintain satisfactory grades and complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to submit an application.

Before the application deadline closed for the 2012-13 year, more than 5,600 applications were received.  The student recipients—who range from incoming college freshmen to seniors—plan to focus their studies in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, or health care.

Last year, the state contributed $5 million and Boeing and Microsoft each pledged $25 million over the next five years toward the Opportunity Scholarship endowment fund.  A board which oversees the fund has set a goal to raise $1 billion from both the public and private sectors by 2020.

University center concept continues to evolve in Bremerton and Olympic Peninsula areas

The university center concept is alive and well in Kitsap County and the north Olympic Peninsula, but perhaps not in quite the way envisioned in a 2008 HECB report that recommended two centers be developed in those communities.

Olympic College in Bremerton and Peninsula College in Port Angeles—both two-year institutions—have been collaborating with other public and private institutions to provide new educational programs for local residents who might not have had access otherwise.  

But don’t look on either campus for a building that says “university center,” because there isn’t one.  “We don’t view a university center as a building per se—it’s a concept,” Olympic College President David Mitchell said at HECB’s regular meeting last month in Bremerton.

A university center can be defined in various ways, but in general, it is a place where one or more higher education institutions offer programs in a satellite arrangement—either through traditional classroom instruction or through various distance learning options. University centers can be located on community college campuses or at off-campus sites in the community.  In Greenville, S.C., an empty shopping mall has been converted to a university center.

A number of university centers have been established in Washington.  Two examples that have their own buildings on campus are the CWU-Des Moines center at Highline Community College and the University Center of North Puget Sound at Everett Community College.

To address the problem of lower-than-average baccalaureate participation rates, the Legislature in 2008 asked the HECB to develop a program and operating plan for a higher education center in the Kitsap County area. Legislators hoped such a center would expand access to upper-level courses for many Kitsap residents who face prohibitively long commutes to Puget Sound baccalaureate institutions..

A report commissioned by the HECB from the Northwest Education Research Center (NORED) recommended two similar-sized university centers be developed, one at Olympic College and the other at Peninsula College.  The board accepted the report in November 2008, and forwarded its recommendations to the Legislature and Governor in conjunction with a higher education system design plan then being developed. 

The Legislature authorized the centers and included funding for initial students in the 2009-11 state budget. However, subsequent state budget cuts have curtailed growth expectations envisioned in the NORED report.

In fall 2010,   Washington State University established a mechanical engineering program at Olympic College with a class of 15 upper-level students. This occurred after only a year of discussion, approvals and setup work and remains the most significant accomplishment related to the centers.  This spring, students from the 2010 class will be the first to receive engineering bachelor’s degrees under the program.

Olympic President Mitchell said the program has responded to a strong need for engineers in Kitsap County, especially by employers such as Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.  Until now, the shipyard has filled almost all the 100 engineering slots that open there each year with new employees from out of state, Mitchell said.

Students typically graduate from the two-year associate program at Olympic before entering the WSU engineering program, providing a seamless educational experience.  A number of place-bound students have indicated they would not have been able to complete engineering degrees without the WSU program at Olympic College.   

In 2012, the Legislature allocated   another $3.8 million each to WSU and the University of Washington to expand engineering enrollments. This will enable     WSU to increase the number of students being served at Olympic to 30 per year, said Bob Olsen, associate dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture in Pullman.  In addition, WSU this fall will launch an engineering program based on the “Bremerton model” for 15 students at the North Puget Sound Center in Everett, he said.

Meanwhile, at Peninsula College, a disparate set of upper-level programs offered by several institutions at three Peninsula College facilities in Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Port Hadlock could be seen as a university center, said Brinton Sprague, Peninsula College’s interim president.  Most of the programs include some mode of distance learning.

The current programs do not have a heavy emphasis on science and technology, but the establishment of a fledgling composites industry in the region opens the door to exploration of training programs that could serve that industry, Sprague said.  

Governor says state will need new revenue to meet its commitments to education

Washington’s next governor will have to consider new sources of revenue to meet the state’s constitutional, moral and economic mandates to fund education from early learning through higher education, Governor Chris Gregoire told reporters after signing the supplemental budget this week.

In Thursday’s edition of the Olympian, the Associated Press quoted the Governor telling current gubernatorial candidates that the state cannot live up to its educational responsibilities without new revenue.

The Governor said she has not yet considered whether to include a revenue increase in her proposed 2013-15 budget before leaving office early next year. One reason is that she is still recovering from the tough budget discussions during the recently concluded legislative session, she said.

Governor signs budget bill that leaves higher education funding nearly intact

Governor Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed a supplemental state operating budget that keeps higher education funding at close to the level appropriated in the original 2011-13 biennial budget. While that is good news for many in higher education, the news is tempered by the fact that appropriations are still about 26 percent less than they were in 2007-09.

Overall, the supplemental operating budget reduces state spending in the current biennium to $31.1 billion—a $1.1 billion reduction from the budget approved last year.

For higher education, budget cuts since the recession began in 2008 have led to a dramatic shift away from state funding and toward a heavier reliance on tuition to pay the bills at public colleges and universities. Tuition now provides nearly 64 percent of instructional program spending at public baccalaureate institutions, and 35 percent at community and technical colleges. In contrast, tuition in 2007-09 accounted for only about a third of revenue at baccalaureates, and a little over a quarter at community and technical colleges.

Despite the changes the recession has brought in higher education funding, many college and university leaders were relieved that additional reductions were not required this year as a result of the need to further trim state spending.

State funding for public institutions is now about 1 percent less than it was when the initial 2011-13 budget was approved last year. Overall, higher education funding is about .5 percent less. These changes compare to a 6 percent decrease in human services funding and a 1 percent reduction in K-12.

The new supplemental budget signed into law Wednesday assumes $120 million in savings resulting from agencies spending less than their appropriations after the 2012 reductions, a statement from the Governor said. These savings come on top of $478 million in spending cuts, fund transfers and new revenue approved by the Legislature during the December 2011 special session.

Increased participation by low-income students may signal ongoing demand for financial aid

Washington’s economy may be showing signs of recovery, but demand for student financial aid remains at record levels. For some, that suggests that successful efforts to encourage more students from less-affluent families to pursue college degrees and certificates will keep demand for financial aid high, even as the economy continues to strengthen.   

State leaders have increased State Need Grant (SNG) appropriations to offset the impact of rapidly rising tuition costs for students who receive SNGs. However, appropriations have been insufficient to serve all students eligible for SNGs, especially in the past couple of years.  SNG is the primary state-funded financial aid program in Washington.

While about 72,000 low-income students were served during the 2010-11 academic year, another 26,000 SNG-eligible students did not receive funding, according to HECB statistics.

Overall demand for financial aid has continued to grow rapidly, from 78,000 SNG-eligible students in 2008-09 to more than 101,000 in 2010-11. The number of unserved students also has risen sharply — from 5,500 in 2008-09 to nearly 26,000 last year.

Rachelle Sharpe, the HECB’s Director of Student Financial Assistance, told Board members at a meeting last week that she expects the final figures for 2011-12 will show continuing strong demand for financial aid. In March, the number of completed Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) — required to determine eligibility for financial aid — was 19 percent higher than at the same time a year ago, Sharpe said.

HECB Executive Director Don Bennett told the Board he believes the numbers suggest that Washington may be experiencing a fundamental shift in demand for financial aid that will not fully abate with the end of the recession.  One reason could be the increasing numbers of low-income Washington families whose children have been encouraged to attend college through programs such as the College Bound Scholarship and GEAR UP.

Washington’s Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education calls for significantly increasing the number of Washington residents who earn degrees and certificates.  An update of the master plan approved by the HECB late last year recommended a renewed commitment to the State Need Grant program.

Unless more students from low-income and racially or ethnically underrepresented groups attend college and complete degrees, the state will be unable to meet its workforce needs in the years ahead. To make it possible for these students to participate in postsecondary education, income-based financial aid must continue to grow.

Meanwhile, increased interest in the State Need Grant Program prompted the Legislature this year to order two reports on the program. They will examine current SNG policies and program effectiveness in increasing access and degree attainment among low-income students.

House Bill 2483 requires the new Washington Student Achievement Council to report on outcomes of students receiving State Need Grants, the impacts on meeting state higher education goals, and options for prioritizing SNG awards.

HB 2483 also establishes the new council and more broadly outlines its duties and responsibilities. The council will replace the HECB on July 1, and the HECB staff will be transferred to the new agency. The council’s SNG report will be due in December 2014.

The supplemental operating budget signed by the Governor today also requires a second SNG report, which will be prepared by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP). It will address whether the program has increased access and degree attainment and whether funding is used efficiently to reach goals. WSIPP’s preliminary report is due in December, with the final due in December 2013. 

Sharpe said her staff has convened a large and diverse workgroup of higher education stakeholders to begin examining key SNG issues and policies in light of the state’s higher education goals and fiscal environment. That group should be ready to report to the council this fall, she said.