Higher education gets no new money, but let’s talk
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Sept. 8, 2015
Instead of finding a way to provide more money for higher education in Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson is offering a plan to talk about what higher education could do if it had more money.
First, let’s give credit where it’s due: The governor made it clear during the first legislative session that the state’s budget should include no cuts to higher education. Because he was determined to establish his reputation as a tax-cutter, that wasn’t the case with other important state programs. That was what happened, but flat revenue actually means a step backward.
Significantly, the Legislature, blaming shortfalls in gambling revenue, cut lottery scholarships in half for freshmen — from $2,000 to $1,000 — a move that puts beginning students at a disadvantage just as they step into the college scene. That will certainly have a “trickle-up” effect on Arkansas’ colleges and universities.
On Monday Hutchinson announced “Closing the Gap 2020: A Master Plan for Arkansas Higher Education.” A Web site explaining the plan in some detail can be found at http://www.adhe.edu/institutions/higher-education-master-plan.
He said the plan rests on six key points, including:
• closing the educational attainment gap;
• improving college readiness of students;
• reducing remedial education enrollments;
• concentrating efforts on adults and underserved populations;
• improving college affordability through reduced time to degree and institutional efficiencies; and
• directing state resources toward achievement of these goals.
Actually several are somewhat duplicative. Last fall about 41 per cent of Arkansas students entering college had to enroll in at least one remedial course because of the lack of preparation for English, math, sciences or other subjects. At the 2-year colleges, two of every three students required remediation. That lack of preparation can be traced back to high school education or even earlier, which certainly resembles an educational attainment gap.
By the way, remediation rates are much worse — 75 percent or more — for students entering college at age 20 or higher.
Once the student earns a high school diploma and reaches college, the problem is transferred to the higher education system. More resources must be expended on “finishing” the remedial student’s high school education. That, in turn, delays the student’s work on a degree and adds to his or her costs.
What can the colleges and universities do to close this gap? Most have already established the equivalent of a high school on their campuses to help students catch up. Unlike higher education, public education gets a bump in funding every years, thanks to a court edict.
Nevertheless, public forums are being scheduled on Sept. 25 and Oct. 1 to talk about the readiness-remediation problem.
Most interesting for students, their parents and the higher education institutions will be the sections on affordability and institutional funding. That’s where the governor needs to find a magic cure.
As pointed out on the Web site, tuition and fees increased by an average of 25 percent for 4-year institutions and 32 percent for 2-year institutions between 2009 and 2014. We’ve seen in various studies that some of this increase can be blamed on rising administrative costs, a problem that certainly must be addressed. But the fact is that state appropriations for higher education have been flat for a long time, despite our political leaders’ incessant rhetoric about its importance to our children’s futures.
We simply haven’t put our money there.
A draft document on the Web site offers several suggestions. One is to change the emphasis of the state scholarship program from merit-based to need-based. With the lottery scholarship amounts declining, that would channel more aid to students who might not otherwise be able to afford college.
Another idea is to raise faculty salaries to the regional average. The Southern Regional Education Board ranks Arkansas last in average faculty salaries, almost $12,000 annually under the average for 4-year colleges and more than $8,000 annually below the average for 2-year colleges.
Considering the state’s political climate, that’s a pipedream. as state Sen. John Cooper, R-Jonesboro, said in response to a question at a Kiwanis Club meeting here last week, there isn’t “much appetite” in the Legislation to do something that would raise more money for higher education.
As to the section on institutional funding, a draft document offers little. Since 2011 the state has tried performance-based funding as an alternative to the traditional method of distributing state funds according to enrollment. The idea is to give the various institutions greater incentives to do things like reduce remediation rates, increase administrative efficiency and raise graduation rates.
Where that idea fails is in the lack of new money for higher education. Thus, the budget allows only taking money from one institution to give to another. The rich get richer, and the poor go out of business. So much for affordability.
As with all the others, a state forum is being scheduled to discuss the problem. You can find dates and places for each on the Web sites, but few times have been set.
Despite the governor’s key point of “directing state resources toward achievement of these goals,” I found nothing on the new Web site to suggest what and how that might be done.
That in itself may be the biggest gap.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.