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James Q. Lynch, "Iowa Community Colleges Hopeful About State Funding"

"Community College Enrollment"

Kristina Gleeson, "Children From Iowa More Likely to Succeed"

[Note: This material is copyright by The Gazette, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of The Gazette.]

  The three universities ‘‘took a really big hit over the last couple of years,’’ said Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D- Coralville, who chairs the Appropriations Committee. ‘‘I think there’s a lot of interest in getting funding and resources to the regents back up, or close to, the level they were in 2001.’’

  The state Board of Regents, which oversees the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, has weathered several years of budget cuts. The universities’ state appropriation was $55 million less this year than in 2000-01, Regents Executive Director Gary Steinke said.

  Meanwhile, utility costs, library costs and general inflation continued to climb.

  ‘‘We want to make up for the years when the Legislature didn’t provide enough,’’ Steinke said.

  Regents officials will submit a 2007-08 appropriation request of almost $718 million this session. It will include nearly $73 million in new money, mainly to cover inflation and the No. 1 priority of raising faculty salaries at the UI and ISU, where pay ranks near the bottom when compared with peer schools.

  Priorities for the nearly $73 million in new money are:

• $36.4 million, equal to a 5.2 percent increase in the base budget, to cover the expected average inflation for higher education costs.

• $14 million to boost by three notches average UI and ISU faculty salaries. Officials want this built into the budget base so it remains a priority every year. Money also would help fund new UNI faculty positions.
• $2.5 million to build an endowment for Iowa Public Radio, which officials hope eventually will be selfsupporting.
• $20 million to replace one-time funding sources, including a one-year energy surcharge paid by students, the universities are using to cover ongoing costs.

  ‘‘If we could move incrementally forward, that would be fantastic,’’ he said. ‘‘As long as we can build a partnership and agreement with the Legislature that we’re going to build back the financial support, that’s fine.’’

  Legislative leaders said they’re on the same page.

  ‘‘The Legislature won’t be able to change the fact that federal cuts have contributed to a 90 percent tuition increase at regents universities over the past six years,’’ said Sen. Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs. ‘‘I can’t fix that all in one year, but I can tell you we are going to reprioritize in a way that takes our responsibilities in education more seriously.’’ Sen. Nancy Boettger, R-Harlan, said the request for new money is a substantial increase over past years, and she would be surprised if the regents get that much.

  ‘‘But you know supporting our universities and our community colleges is a top priority for both caucuses,’’ said Boettger, ranking member of the education appropriations subcommittee.

  Tuition is a concern, as are rental housing costs and graduates’ rising debt, said Sen. Minority Leader Mary Lundby, R- Marion. ‘‘ We’ve got to start filling in that gap to keep tuition down,’’ she said.

  If the Legislature can find about $50 million for the universities, Lundby wants a pledge of no tuition increases for a few years.

  Dvorsky said legislators will work hard to find the necessary funding but stressed the need for sustainable funding.

  A spokesman for Gov.-elect Chet Culver said he is working on the higher education budget proposal, but no numbers will be available until later this month.

  It’s also possible the Senate will discuss the role of the Board of Regents in governing the state universities, stemming partly from the presidential search controversy at the UI, several legislators said. Culver will appoint four regents this spring.

  The appointments require Senate approval.

  Tension between regents leaders and UI faculty, staff and student leaders over the search for a successor to David Skorton, who left the UI in June for the Cornell University presidency, could come up in that discussion, Dvorsky said.

  ‘‘I think there will be a lot of discussion as to what is the role of the regents versus the three institutions — a big- picture approach,’’ he said.

  But Boettger said she doesn’t expect any changes to the system.

  Iowa’s 15 community colleges may be among the winners when the score is tallied on the 2007 legislative session that begins Monday.

  Incoming Democratic Gov. Chet Culver is calling for the state to invest $ 12.5 million in job training, economic development and higher education. He also wants to attract an a d d i t i o n a l $12.5 million investment by private companies working with community colleges to create skills- training programs for Iowa workers. Employers are requesting that state job-training dollars be tailored to the specific needs of an industry or company, Culver said. ‘‘Now, it’s time to update our community colleges for the mission of reorienting Iowa’s work force to the challenges of the new economy,’’ he said.

  Culver’s proposal is in line with the request from community colleges and the state Department of Education, according to Steve Ovel of Kirkwood Community College and a lobbyist for the two-year college system.

  Community colleges are coming off their two best back-to-back years in terms of funding, Ovel said. The Legislature approved a $9.8 million increase last year and $10 million for this year, moves that Ovel hopes signal bipartisan recognition of a need to maintain funding for programs that train Iowa’s work force.

  The funding is key to holding tuition in check, Ovel said, noting that students are paying at least $100 a credit hour now.
‘‘That presents a barrier, especially for working adults who want to go back to school,’’ he said.

  Community colleges would like an increase in their board-approved property tax levy, but Ovel said any change is likely to be a part of a broader property tax reform package.

  Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, who was in the Legislature when it created the community college system, wants to appropriate $40 million over three years to update technical equipment at the schools. In many cases, he said, individual colleges don’t have financial resources to replace machinery and equipment that no longer is used in the workplace

 • Based on fall 2006 numbers, nearly 84,961 Iowans were enrolled in community college programs leading to a degree, diploma or certification.
 • That was a 2.98 percent increase from the previous fall.
 • More than half, 58 percent, of community college students were enrolled in arts and sciences programs that typically lead to transfers to four-year colleges.
 • The remainder were enrolled in career and technical programs. The greatest number of those are in health career programs.
 
Source: Iowa Department of Education Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Preparation

  Children born in Iowa have a better chance to experience success throughout life and during their K-12 school years than most U.S. children.

  An annual analysis produced by Education Week newspaper reached those conclusions in an assessment called ‘‘Quality Counts.’’

  The report’s ‘‘Chance-for Success’’ index uses 13 indicators of whether young children get off to a good start, succeed in school and hit educational and income benchmarks as adults.

  Iowa is ranked 11th of 51 on the index, which includes Washington, D.C.

  At the top of the index are Virginia (ranked 1), Connecticut (2) and Minnesota (3).

  Bring up the rear are New Mexico (51) and Louisiana and Arizona (tied for 49). ‘‘We find that a child’s life prospects depend greatly on where he or she lives,’’ said Christopher Swanson, director of the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. The center collected data for the report.

  People born in the South and Southwest are generally less likely to experience success than those living in the Northeast and north central states, according to the report.

  States also were ranked on 15 indicators regarding their public kindergarten through 12th grade performance. Iowa ranked 16th of 51.

  Top-ranked performers on the Achievement Index were Massachusetts (1), New Jersey (2) and Vermont (3). Performing at the bottom are Mississippi ( 51) and West Virginia, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alabama (tied at 47).

  A majority of the index’s indicators considered scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP exam, sometimes called ‘‘the nation’s report card.’’ Researchers looked at student scores and how states improve from one year to the next.

  The latter measure held Iowa back from an even better ranking, said Judy Jeffrey, director of the Iowa Department of Education.

  ‘‘If you didn’t make great progress on NAEP, then you’re probably not going to do very well,’’ Jeffrey said. ‘‘In most cases, we’re still above the national average, but there were no statistically significant changes in most of those areas.’’

  Another measure compares students from low-income families with other Iowa students.

  Their performance on the national test, overall, lagged behind their higher-income peers but not as much as low-income kids lagged on average nationally. That performance gap shrunk in Iowa more quickly than the national average between 2003 and 2005.

  More Iowa public high school students graduated on time with a standard diploma in 2003, almost 83 percent, than the national average of nearly 70 percent.

  The index also looked at Advanced Placement courses, college-level courses with an optional final exam. Students who score well sometimes earn college credit.

  Researchers found that fewer Iowa AP exam-takers received high test scores (3 or above, of 5 possible) than the national average. In 2005, 7.5 of each 100 Iowans who took the AP exam got such a high score, compared with the national average of 15.7.

  ‘‘We have a long history of access to college-level work, which is probably why Advanced Placement does not have as prevalent a role in Iowa as it has in other states,’’ Jeffrey said. She added that a growing number of Iowa students are taking AP exams.

  Iowa students have access to other ways to take collegelevel work — such as enrolling part-time in post-high school courses or by taking dual-credit courses at their high school or a nearby college — she added.

  Jeffrey was not alarmed that Iowa ranked better on the lifetime index than the K-12 index. ‘‘It just depends on the indicators that they’ve used,’’ she said.

  Quality Counts was supported by the Pew Center on the States.