Cougar Gold sales brisk at the holidays

This holiday season, large numbers of Washington State University alumni and cheese connoisseurs are ordering boxes of famed Cougar Gold cheddar cheese produced at the WSU Creamery, Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper reported in an article published this week.

The WSU Creamy will ship about 50,000 boxes of the popular white cheddar with the crumbly texture to eager cheese lovers across the country, the newspaper reported. 

The recipe for Cougar Gold was developed about 60 years ago by WSU Professor N.S. Golding while conducting research on how to produce a white cheddar that would ripen in a can. 

The WSU Creamery employs up to 75 workers at various times of the year.  Profits from sales of Cougar Gold cheese support scholarships and work at WSU’s School of Food Science, the Spokesman-Review reported.

Governor announces members of new Opportunity Scholarship board of directors

State business leaders who will spearhead an effort to raise $1 billion in public and private contributions to provide higher education scholarships for low- and middle-income students were named Tuesday by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Legislation passed earlier this year created the Opportunity Scholarship program to provide student scholarships and to fund institutional proposals that directly increase the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to Washington high school graduates and adults returning to college in high employer-demand and other fields.  

The program’s new board of directors will be responsible for overseeing and guiding the fund, for fundraising and for selecting a nonprofit program administrator, according to a new release from the Governor’s office. It also will set guidelines for the portion of the program intended to increase the number of bachelor’s degrees in high-demand fields.

Those named to the Board of Directors are:

• Jim Albaugh, executive vice president of The Boeing Co. and president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes
• Theresa Gillespie, co-founder and managing director of Trilogy Partnership
• Jerry Grinstein, co-founder and strategic director of Madrona Investment Group and former chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines
• Kimberly Harris, president and chief executive officer of Washington-based Puget Sound Energy, the utility subsidiary of Puget Energy
• Mack Hogans, former Weyerhaeuser Co. senior vice president
• Jim Sinegal, founder, president and chief executive officer of Costco Wholesale Corp
• Brad Smith, general counsel and executive vice president of Legal and Corporate Affairs at Microsoft

Albaugh and Smith joined the Governor at a news conference Tuesday to stress the importance of the fund as a means of providing higher education opportunities to more low- and middle-income students and to ensure that the state produces sufficient numbers of skilled workers to meet future demand.

In June, Boeing and Microsoft each pledged $25 million to the fund over the next five years, and the Legislature included $5 million for the program in 2011-13 state budget.  The ultimate goal is to grow the endowment fund to $1 billion by 2020.

At the news conference, the Governor described a typical student the Opportunity scholarships may help.  Such a student might live in a family with an income sufficient to pay the mortgage and meet basic needs, but one which is “just over the line” in terms of eligibility for student financial aid programs.

That student would get As and Bs—possibly in math or science—and might want to be an engineer someday, the Governor said.  “They just need the chance.”

Albaugh said Boeing’s future success depends upon continued access to the most capable workforce in the world. “We think this provides a great opportunity for us to invest in the future of the state, but also to invest in the future of our company,” he said.

Smith recalled that Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the company in New Mexico but moved it to Washington “because of the only natural resource that in fact matters to our industry: people.”

Smith agreed that the state’s future economic health depends upon a talented and well-educated workforce, but he added that the most important benefit of the Opportunity Scholarship program will be “to future kids in Washington state.” He noted statistics showing that people with bachelor’s degrees have half the unemployment rate of people with less than a high school diploma.

Governor endorses proposal for new agency to promote educational attainment

Gov. Chris Gregoire today presented a set of education proposals for consideration during the 2012 Legislative session. They include establishment of a new state-level Office of Student Achievement with responsibility for improving educational attainment from high school through graduate school.  

The proposal for a new office to improve student attainment at the secondary and postsecondary levels is one of two options included in a report released today by a Higher Education Steering Committee, created by the Legislature earlier this year.

The other option also would create a state-level agency, but with broader responsibilities that encompass early childhood education through college. That option is reminiscent of the Governor’s Department of Education proposal that did not pass during this year’s regular legislative session. The Governor said she still endorses the concept of a P-20 agency, but is supporting the more limited option because she believes it is more doable in the short upcoming legislative session.

Under either of the steering committee options, the Office of Student Achievement would replace the HECB, which is slated to go out of business in July. The HECB has posted the full steering committee report online.

New HECB web pages focus on earning college credit in high school

New web pages highlighting programs that enable students to earn college credit in high school were brought online recently by the HECB and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Created in response to the Launch Year Act passed in 2011, the pages contain tables showing the types of college credit granted for Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores at the state’s two- and four-year colleges and universities.

The Launch Year Act required the HECB and OSPI to post comprehensive information about the full range of programs and services designed to help students make a more fluid transfer from high school to college or other postsecondary education programs such as apprenticeships.

Among the many programs highlighted on the new web pages are several that allow students to earn college credit through standardized examinations: AP courses and exams offered by the College Board, International Baccalaureate programs and exams, and University of Cambridge International Examinations.

Also listed is information on Running Start, a program in which high school students enroll in college courses offered through their local community colleges; Tech Prep, a program that helps students transition to college professional technical programs; and information on College in the High School; Early College; Gateway to College; Career Link Program; and the Technical College Direct Funded Enrollment program.

The Launch Year Act, based on a proposal by Gov. Chris Gregoire, is designed to help students progress from high school to a certificate or college degree by increasing opportunities and providing a clear pathway. The goal of the legislation is for all state high schools to offer students enough courses to earn the equivalent of a year of postsecondary credit toward a certificate, apprenticeship program, technical degree, or associate or bachelor’s degree.

State Work Study provides students career skills, experience

State Work Study, a program that enables students at 55 public and independent institutions in Washington to earn part of the cost of their education, faces suspension in the Governor’s proposed 2012-13 supplemental budget, although it appears to have escaped the initial round of cuts being proposed by the House and Senate during the current special session.

Just a few years ago, before it was reduced by two-thirds, the program served nearly 9,500 students. Now it is projected to serve 3,500 – many of whom report they won’t be able to stay in school if the remaining program funding is cut, said Rachelle Sharpe, director of student financial assistance at the HECB in testimony before the House Higher Education Committee on Monday.

Sharpe highlighted key facts about the program, emphasizing its role in helping students nearing graduation gain critical skills, experience and employment opportunities while increasing the productivity and profitability of state businesses.

As an example of how the program benefits both students and employers, Sharpe cited the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute focused on curing infectious diseases, which has hired 200 work study students over the last decade. Fifteen of those student employees continue to work for the company as permanent employees after graduation, and the firm continues to praise students’ contributions to its progress. 

About 2,000 employers statewide participate, paying a percentage of the students’ wages as well as all benefits costs. Washington recently increased the amount employers must contribute to the program in an effort to offset funding reductions to needy students. Off-campus, for-profit employers now must pay 60 percent of student wages, on-campus employers pay 40 percent of wages, and off-campus non-profits as well as STEM employers pay 30 percent.   

Sharpe indicated that two rounds of increased match rates since 2009-10 have been challenging for employers in terms of maintaining previous levels of program participation. The state program pays a somewhat higher wage rate than the separate federal work study program, which also is available to participating institutions. Both programs provide institutions significant flexibility in making individual awards.

State Work Study program funds are used, in many instances, to assist upper-level or graduate students who are progressing toward or nearing completion of degrees. Federal work study funds, on the other hand, are often used by institutions to assist students in their first year or two, Sharpe said.  

State Work Study funding for 2010-11 totaled $20.6 million for 7,500 students. Of this, $14.3 million was state support and $6.3 million was employer support. In 2011-12, 3,500 students are slated to receive a total of $11 million – of which $3 million is employer contribution.

Sharpe said SWS funding is distributed mostly to full-time students, who are limited to 19 hours of wages per week. Research has correlated part-time work with increased levels of student success, she said, as long as student workloads remain between 15 and 19 hours per week.

Two Evergreen State College students who participate in the State Work Study program testified at the hearing. One, Cory Frye, said he enjoyed working hard in a business embedded in the community that is doing good work. The other, Emily McKown, said she would not be able to go to college without the program.

“It’s a good program,” McKown said. “It furthers my career experience, and having a couple of days a week with hands-on work helps me understand and have time to work through ideas presented in the classroom.”

Legislature moving on proposal to whittle down some of budget shortfall

The House Ways & Means Committee this morning recommended passage of an “early-action” supplemental budget measure that would make nearly   $480 million in spending cuts and other adjustments as a first step toward closing a projected $1.4 billion revenue shortfall for the remainder of the 2011-13 biennium.

PSHB 2058 and the Senate version, PSSB 5883, include no additional cuts to higher education for now. However, significant reductions are likely to be on the table when the Legislature convenes in January for its regular 2012 session.  That’s when legislators will attempt to finish work on resolving the state’s latest budget crisis.

Today’s House committee action, and a Senate committee vote that could come this afternoon, move the Legislature a step closer to adjournment, possibly this week.  Gov. Gregoire called the Legislature into special session to address the budget after revenue forecasts projected the state would fall well short of revenue assumptions contained in the biennial budget passed earlier this year.

A supplemental budget plan offered by the Governor would cut $2 billion in state spending over the balance of the biennium, including $160 million in support for the state’s public colleges and universities.

The proposal also would suspend the State Work Study program in 2012, saving about $8 million.  Under that proposal, approximately 3,500 low-and middle-income college students would lose money they earn working to help pay college expenses.

The Governor also has proposed a temporary sales tax increase to buy back cuts to higher education institutions and other key programs.

Differences over how to deal with the bulk of the budget shortfall apparently mean the Legislature will be unable to complete the work during the special session. 

One bright spot in the House and Senate budget bills is a provision to add
$1 million for the Aerospace Training Scholarship and Student Loan Program. The program was established by the Legislature and Governor earlier this year to provide low-interest loans to students studying aerospace production at two training centers in Everett and Spokane. The HECB administers the Aerospace Loan Program.

Walla Walla CC receives national honor for programs that prepare students for jobs in a changing economy

Walla Walla Community College has been named one of four “finalists with distinction” in a first-ever national recognition of community college excellence sponsored by the Aspen Institute.

The finalists were among 10 community colleges across the country in the running for the first Aspen Prize to celebrate top-performing institutions and to help other institutions understand how to improve outcomes for students working toward degrees in community colleges, according to an Aspen Institute news release.

The winner of the Aspen Prize, Valencia College in Orlando, Fla., will receive a $600,000 prize to support its programs, while Walla Walla CC and the other three finalists with distinction will receive $100,000 apiece.

The announcement follows a yearlong effort by the Aspen Institute to assemble and review data on community colleges and the critical elements of student success: student learning, degree completion and transfer, equity and employment/earnings after college. The institute’s mission is to “foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues.”

“Community colleges share a common and vital purpose in preparing students of all ages, including working adults, for jobs and continued academic study, said Richard Riley, co-chair of the prize selection committee and a former South Carolina Governor and Secretary of Education.  “For 7 million Americans, they represent the most promising path to education and employment. But, for community colleges to fulfill that promise, we need to identify ways for them to boost student success—and that’s what this prize is all about.”

Walla Walla CC was singled out for its “visionary development” of programs aimed at creating jobs opportunities for graduates and promoting economic development in the region surrounding the college.

“Seeing the demise of traditional agriculture, for example, the college developed new programs related to the land, from wine-making to wind energy and water management.  As a result of this vision and other exceptional practices, 2010 graduates from Walla Walla earn more than twice the wages of other new entrants in the regional labor market,” the Aspen Institute news release said.

UW announcement illustrates role of research in improving human health and building economy

The University of Washington will receive $2.3 million annually from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the next four years to explore ways of treating a large group of inherited diseases. Many of those diseases are extremely rare, but as a group they affect millions of Americans.

The federal money will be used to establish two programs in the UW’s Department of Genome Sciences to look at ways of applying advances in human gene research to the care of patients suffering from hereditary illnesses such as cystic fibrosis, cycle cell anemia and muscular dystrophy. Such illnesses tend to be caused by a mutation in a single human gene.  

The NIH announcement illustrates the important role research universities play in developing new medical treatments and other advances to improve the human condition.  Such work also can lead to growth in the state economy by spinning off new businesses based on work carried out at the universities.

The announcement also is an example of the important role research funding plays in the universities’ bottom line. Approximately 37 percent of overall funding for the UW and Washington State University came from research grants and contracts during the 2009-11 biennium.

According to an article in UW Today, pilot studies leading the UW’s successful proposal on inherited diseases were funded by the state’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund.  That fund was established by the Governor and Legislature in 2005 to foster growth in the state’s life sciences economic sector and to improve the health and well being of Washingtonians.

Money in the fund comes from the state’s master settlement agreement with tobacco companies. However, much of that money has now been redirected to other needs because of the state’s budget crisis, according to a recent article in Crosscut.com.

HECB recommends state keep focused on achieving 2008 higher education goals

Washington should maintain its commitment to the goals contained in the state’s 2008 Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education, even though they were adopted under far less challenging economic circumstances than exist today, the HECB has recommended.

Continued support for the Strategic Master Plan goals was one of the key recommendations in an update to the Strategic Master Plan approved at a recent HECB board meeting. An update of the 10-year plan is required every four years.

Broadly stated, the original plan called for the state to:

• Increase educational attainment to create prosperity and opportunity;
• Promote economic growth and innovation; and
• Monitor and fund higher education for results.

The 2008 plan—the first higher education master plan with a 10-year planning horizon—was prepared by the HECB and endorsed by the Legislature only months before the full force of the recession hit. The resulting setbacks for the state economy and revenue reductions for state government have slowed efforts to make progress toward the plan’s goals.  

For example, the state is now well short of being on track to meet its 2018 amended degree production targets. Although some gains are being made, achieving the goals will take longer than originally planned.

Even if the 1.7 percent current annual rate of increase in bachelor’s degree production could be sustained, the state would not reach its original 2018 goal until 2025. And many factors, including state funding, could influence whether that extended timeframe was realistic. 

Additional budget cuts of nearly $170 million have been proposed for higher education in the second half of this biennium. Cuts in the State Need Grant and State Work Study programs also have been proposed. Each of these decisions could impact institutional capacity to deliver degrees by reducing course offerings and sections, and by causing students to withdraw from degree programs before completing them.  

Both the 2008 strategic plan and the 2012 update stress that failure to meet degree production goals will have a negative impact on the state’s future economic growth and on the quality of life in Washington as measured by higher incarceration rates, increased government payments for social services, and increased basic health care costs.

An advisory committee for the plan update considered whether the degree goals might be too ambitious. However, after additional study, they concluded the goals remain the right ones for Washington if the state is to compete effectively in the national and global economies in the years ahead. Some have suggested the goals aren’t ambitious enough.

The advisory committee developed a set of seven ‘next steps’ needed to maintain momentum on the goals identified in the original 2008 plan. Among these are continued state support for the College Bound Scholarship program, maintaining funding for the State Need Grant program, and improved K-12 – postsecondary pathways.

Key recommendations included in the 2012 plan update:

• Increase capacity for higher education to serve more students. Expand enrollment capacity utilizing existing higher education facilities and online options. Grow capacity in high employer demand programs of study, recognizing the higher cost of these programs.
• Maintain commitment to access for low-income students. Renew commitment to, and value of, the State Need Grant program.
• Build on efforts to increase transitions and completion. Provide promised financial support and mentoring to low-income College Bound Scholarship students who will start arriving on college campuses next year. Accommodate transfer students so those who are part way to degrees can complete.
• Focus a simplified accountability funding initiative on increasing degree completion and improving the quality of education. Align incentives with state goals for educational attainment while recognizing institutional and sector missions. Reward improvements rather than goals or targets. Align higher education with state needs by providing accountability with other partners, including the Legislature.
• Define and develop K-12 through postsecondary program pathways, especially in high employer demand majors and careers. Provide incentives for degrees in STEM, high employer demand and critical state need areas. Leverage state investment in the Opportunity Scholarship fund and Opportunity Expansion programs to meet labor market demand. Encourage business and industry leaders to assist the colleges in innovation.
• Promote programs that enable students to earn college degrees sooner. Programs include Launch Year, Prior Learning Assessment, CTC Alternate Math Pathway, I-BEST, and pre-college reform.  

More information about the Strategic Master Plan Update process is posted on the HECB website.

Senate committee gets first look at proposal for new state-level education agency

A draft proposal expected to be in the hands of legislators later this month will recommend creating a new state Office of Student Achievement to focus on increasing educational attainment from preschool through college.

Members of the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee heard a briefing on the proposal last week from Leslie Goldstein, higher education policy advisor for Gov. Chris Gregoire.  Over the summer and fall, the Governor chaired the Higher Education Steering Committee, a group created by the Legislature to propose responsibilities for a new Council for Higher Education (CHE), which is slated to replace the HECB in July.

The proposal likely to emerge from the steering committee would create an entity with broader responsibilities than higher education alone. The new Office of Student Achievement would replace the HECB. Its responsibilities would include coordination and planning among all state education entities, including the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Department of Early Learning.

The Office of Student Achievement proposal outlined by Goldstein was compared by some legislators to Gov. Gregoire’s earlier proposal for a new state Department of Education. That proposal was opposed by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn and others, and did not pass in the last legislative session.

Goldstein said the Office of Student Achievement would be very different from the previously-proposed Department of Education. Rather than having responsibility for actually governing and managing P-20 educational programs, the new office would be tasked with providing better policy coordination among the entities. It would not change the existing relationships among state-level agencies and local educational providers, such as between OSPI and local school districts, or SBCTC and community and technical colleges, Goldstein said.

The proposed new office would incorporate duties now performed by the HECB, the State Board of Education, and the Educational Research and Data Center, which is currently housed in the Office of Financial Management.  The proposal would not create a separate state office to manage student financial aid programs, as enacted in the CHE legislation. Financial aid administration would remain with the new office. 

Under the proposal outlined by Goldstein, the Office of Student Achievement would have an executive director appointed by the Governor and an advisory board comprised of six citizens and five representatives from state education agencies and higher education institutions. Two non-voting members would represent private independent K-12 schools and the Independent Colleges of Washington.

Goldstein said steering committee consultants and some members have concerns about the P-20 scope of the new agency and prefer a board comprised exclusively of citizen members, similar to the existing HECB, rather than one consisting of a mix of citizens and institutional and stakeholder representatives. She predicted the draft proposal expected later this month will be a “consensus document” of the steering committee, “with some concerns expressed as well.”  

Whatcom CC student video makes plea to ‘invest in me’

The Bellingham Herald’s School Days Blog told readers last week about a group of Whatcom Community College students who have produced a short video that “puts a face” on the higher education budget debate.

The video begins and ends with statistics about college participation, proposed budget cuts, and the importance of higher education in today’s job market. Facing the camera, students then say how they plan to use their associate degrees, and they conclude with a plea to “invest in me.”  

Families still showing strong interest in GET to save for college

This year’s increase in the purchase price of Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) units apparently hasn’t dampened interest in the program among Washington families looking for a way to save for college.

Since the latest GET enrollment year started Nov. 1, the program has seen 1,325 new accounts opened. That is a rate slightly above the one set over the same length of time two years ago, which was a record year for the program, GET Director Betty Lochner told the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee this week.  

Although the current enrollment year will be two weeks longer than past years, it isn’t clear whether the program will remain on pace to set a new record for total enrollments. However, the rate of signups since Nov. 1 suggests that families still believe the GET program provides a sound investment.

“That’s telling us people are saying tuition is going to go up even more, so we need to buy this year,” Lochner said.

One of the big questions for the GET program was whether the sizable increase in the GET unit price—from $117 last year to $163 this year—would discourage some families from opening new accounts.  So far, that has not been the case. The pattern suggests that families are betting that college tuition—and the GET unit price—will continue to rise in the future.

One hundred GET units purchased at today’s price guarantees one year of resident undergraduate tuition and required state fees at the highest-priced Washington public university (either the UW or WSU), no matter how much tuition rises in the meantime. 

Lochner said most of the GET unit price increase this year was accounted for by rising tuition costs.  The remainder adjusted for investment volatility and other factors.

So far this year, more families are signing up to make monthly payments toward a fixed number of GET units, rather than pay a lump sum, Lochner said.  If this year follows the pattern of previous years, more lump sum payments can be expected as the current year winds to a close on May 31.