FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 6, 2009

Legislative chairs to give perspectives on 2009 Session at HECB's May meeting

      OLYMPIA—Chairs of the House and Senate committees that oversee legislation affecting higher education will offer insights on the Legislature’s 2009 regular session when the Higher Education Coordinating Board meets with its Advisory Council May 12 in Olympia.

     The Board will hear from Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, Chair of the House Higher Education Committee, and Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, Chair of the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee.  

     The HECB and the Advisory Council also will hear reports on key provisions of the higher education operating and capital budgets, and hold a discussion on the agency’s near-term work plan. 

     The 2009 Legislature assigned the HECB an ambitious work agenda for the remainder of this year. Among the legislative assignments due by December are:

• A system design plan on how the current higher education delivery system can be shaped and expanded over the next 10 years.

• A report and recommendations on developing a tuition policy that allows flexibility, accessibility, and differentiation among public, baccalaureate tuition rates.

• An interim report on developing a plan for improving the strategic and operational use of technology in higher education.

• A work group study to implement a one-stop, web-based portal for academic planning.

• A requirement to re-brand all financial aid programs as Opportunity Pathways.

• Implementing the current law requiring performance agreements for each public four-year institution for the period September 1, 2009 through June 30, 2015.

     The system design planning project work was begun this winter by the HECB staff and higher education partners. Committee co-chairs Earl Hale and John Gardner will provide the HECB and Advisory Council with a status report at the May 12 meeting.

     Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, will discuss 2SHB 1946, which requires the HECB to convene a higher education technology transformation task force. Carlyle, the bill’s prime sponsor, will discuss what he hopes the task force will accomplish and the HECB’s role under the legislation.

     Other provisions passed by the Legislature in 2009 affecting higher education include:

• GET Actuarial Study. The Office of the State Actuary will conduct an independent assessment of alternatives for assuring the long-term financial solvency of the Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) program.

• JLARC Performance Audit. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) will complete a performance audit of the state’s baccalaureate institutions to create a ‘transparent link’ between revenues, expenditures and performance outcomes as outlined in the performance agreements under RCW 2B.10.920 and in the 2008 Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education. 

• E2SHB 2021. This bill creates a new State Need Grant category for financially needy, placebound students who have earned associate degrees, and consolidates the Educational Opportunity Grant program into the State Need Grant program.  It also requires each of the student financial aid programs administered by the board be labeled an “opportunity pathway.”   The Governor signed the legislation April 25.

• 2SHB 1355. Creates the Opportunity Internship Program, which will allow local consortia of employers, labor organizations, educational institutions, and workforce and economic development councils to offer internships in high-demand fields to students while still in high school. The Governor signed the legislation
  April 25.

     The HECB meets four times a year with the Advisory Council, which includes K-12 and higher education representatives.

     Briefing materials for the meeting are available at:
     www.hecb.wa.gov/boardmtgs/index.asp

Who:      Higher Education Coordinating Board and

               Advisory Council

What:    May regular meeting & Advisory Council Mtg.

Where:  State Investment Board Room,
               2100 Evergreen Park Drive SW, Olympia

When:   Tuesday, May 12, 2009 – 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Agenda

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For more information: Gary Larson

(360) 753-7817 or garyl@hecb.wa.gov