We wrote Wednesday about Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget for the 2011-13 biennium. We found it to be mostly good news. Independent Colleges of Washington is pleased with the governor’s solid support, in fact an increase, for the State Need Grant Program, but disappointed in cuts to State Work Study and suspension of many smaller financial aid programs. Overall, a good budget under difficult circumstances.

Sen. Lisa Brown

Now what? The Legislature ultimately writes the budget, and will take it up in earnest when they convene Jan. 10 for the 2011 session. Some call the governor’s budget a “rough draft” that will change significantly by the time a final vote is taken in late April.

The chit-chat has already begun. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown of Spokane blogged that, “the service cuts Gov. Gregoire has proposed are numerous, deep and are painful.

“Her list shows the enormity of our task, and I commend the Governor for her first step in tackling this latest hurdle we face as a state,” Brown continued. “Our challenge isn’t just a math problem. We must keep in mind that the education we provide to our young people represents their opportunity for their future.”

Rep. Reuven Carlyle

State Rep. Reuven Carlyle is probably the most prolific blogger in the Legislature. In his post about the budget he expressed some disappointment that the governor didn’t come up with any bold, structural proposals for funding higher education, and outlined some goals of his own.

“The Governor’s budget proposal–creative in some areas but unimaginative in others– simply continues the unrelenting 15 year trend of reducing state spending for higher education while shifting the burden of costs to students. This trend is on a march that we will regret for generations. The base proposal to increase tuition by 9, 10 and 11 percent at our various institutions is not the answer in that it fails to include a way to ensure that students are paying for more than the status quo. I would only support increased tuition as part of a plan to pay for outcomes instead of inputs.

“The plan to stand by the State Need Grant is a critical step in protecting student access, but eliminating Work Study and all of the smaller scholarship programs–including the Passport to College Promise Program for foster youth–is simply unacceptable. And I’ll work hard to find the money to restore those programs.”

We appreciate Carlyle’s commitment to financial aid, and believe that, especially when revenue is tight, it makes sense to focus those resources on the areas of greatest need.

George Bridges

George Bridges, president at Whitman College, has been opining often of late on the need to re-think the way public higher education is funded. The Seattle Times published an op-ed by Bridges Wednesday, a piece that was similar to one the Oregonian ran in Portland earlier this year. Bridges advocates for a system that charges tuition based on the cost of education, with significant investment in financial aid for low- and middle-income students. He also reiterates one of the primary goals of our association, and that is greater collaboration between private and public colleges in Washington.

“Whereas our institutions differ in focus and scope, together we provide thousands of Washingtonians with exceptional educational experiences each year. Any new paradigm for supporting higher education must draw fully upon the resources of every institution and reform must focus on how we can serve students better.

“We must commit to ensuring that they can attend the college or university — public or private — in which they are most likely to thrive intellectually and develop the capacities they will need to succeed in their professional and civic lives. Our state’s future depends upon it.”

We’re looking forward to the on-going discussion of the budget and higher education funding as we work to create opportunity, choice, and success for Washington college students.

Published tuition and fees at private, nonprofit colleges and universities is increasing an average of 4.5 percent for the 2010-11 academic year, while private colleges are increasing institutional student aid by an average of 6.8 percent, according to the final results of a membership survey conducted by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU).

When you add it all up, net tuition and fees at private nonprofit colleges and universities has been going down in recent years. Colleges offset modest increases in tuition with generous investment in institutional student aid to make college possible for all qualified students.

Here in Washington our figures are even a bit better than the national averages. Tuition at Independent Colleges of Washington institutions will rise by an average of about 4.3 percent this fall, while institutional student aid budgets will be up by more than 10 percent, to a total of more than $278 million.

This fall’s increase is on par with the 4.3 percent increase reported by NAICU for the 2009-10 academic year. The 2009-10 increase was the smallest since 1972-73, while this fall’s jump is the second lowest. During the 10 years prior to the recession, the average annual tuition increase at private, nonprofit colleges was 6 percent.

The 2010-11 increase in institutional student aid comes on top of a 9-percent increase in 2009-10. (This is the second year that NAICU has collected student aid figures from its member institutions as part of the annual tuition survey.)

“Our colleges are redoubling their efforts to keep out-of-pocket costs as low as possible for students and families, while maintaining the quality academics, personal touch, and high graduation rates that are the hallmarks of private, nonprofit higher education,” said NAICU President David L. Warren.

“The bottom line for consumers is that they should not rule out a private college just because of the price tag,” Warren said. “Generous student aid policies at private institutions reduce out-of-pocket costs significantly for most students.”

According to the College Board, average published tuition and fees at private colleges and universities in 2009-10 was $26,273. However, the College Board also reports that after grant aid from all sources and federal tax benefits, average net tuition and fees for full-time students drops to $11,870.

Because of large campus investments in grant and scholarship programs, and lower-than-usual tuition increases, out-of-pocket tuition expenses for students and families have grown at a slower rate than published tuition, or inflation, in recent years. According to the College Board, inflation-adjusted net tuition (tuition less all grant aid and federal higher education tax benefits) at private colleges actually fell by 8.6 percent from 2004-05 to 2009-10.

“The economic downturn has accelerated efforts by private colleges to think and act creatively to enhance their affordability and remain competitive in the marketplace,” Warren said.

“In addition to colleges that are boosting student aid and keeping their tuition increases to the smallest rates in decades, we’ve seen a number of institutions freeze tuition, launch three-year degree programs, and introduce other new measures this year,” said Warren.

Over the last two years, large endowment losses, a sustained drop in charitable giving, and a spike in student aid applications have stretched college budgets thin. Private colleges have used the savings generated from cuts in their administrative budgets to boost student aid and keep tuition increases at lower-than-usual levels.

NAICU’s annual survey collects percent increases, but not dollar amounts. Nearly 500 (497) institutions responded to the 2010-11 survey.

We’re seeing and hearing more and more debate these days about whether going to college is worth the cost. It’s a fair enough question, and every student should do the calculus before enrolling. But prospective students and their families should consider all of the costs and benefits of a college degree, not the one-dimensional cost-versus-salary comparison that often seems to be the entirety of the discussion.

This Seattle University grad seems happy to receive her degree!

In the past few questioned the value of a college degree. “Skyrocketing cost” is typically given as the reason to re-think that truth. Here in the State of Washington tuition at public baccalaureate institutions has been increased by 14 percent in each of the last two years to help the institutions offset some of the drastic reductions the legislature made to state funding in the current budget. However, Washington’s private colleges raised tuition by just a little over four percent in that time, on average. The members of Independent Colleges of Washington have budgeted more than $278 million for institutional financial aid for next year. Combined with state and federal aid and private scholarships, the cost comes within the reach of most any family. In fact, nationally, inflation-adjusted net tuition at private colleges has actually dropped 8.6 percent over the last five years.

It’s unfortunate that, in the minds of many, a college education is no more than a financial transaction. Perhaps all of those get-a-good-job-get-a-good-education commercials that ran on TV during the ’50s and ’60s have contributed to the mindset. We often hear “not every job requires a bachelor’s degree” as a reason not to support higher education. But numerous studies have driven home the value of increased education, to the student and to society as a whole.

Rebecca Mead wrote a great piece on the college cost debate for the June 7, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. The whole thing is worth a read, but we especially like Mead’s conclusion:

If even a professionally oriented college degree is no longer a guarantee of easily found employment, an argument might be made in favor of a student’s pursuing an education that is less, rather than more, pragmatic. (More theology, less accounting.) That way, regardless of each graduate’s ultimate path, all might be qualified to be carriers of arts and letters, of which the nation can never have too many.

We often hear from employers that what they really need are more people with communication, problem solving, and critical thinking skills, just the sorts of talents honed in pursuit of a solid liberal arts education, regardless of major. Factor in the value of an educated life when you’re evaluating the ROI on that college degree.

A new report from The Project on Student Debt has some mixed news. While 2008 college grads left school with somewhat more debt than those in previous years, debt for students in the Western U.S. was generally less than that for students in the East.

ICW board member Laura Rehrmann, left, and Alicia Cottrell, a University of Puget Sound student and recipient of the ICW Board Scholarship, talk during a break in ICW's board meeting in October.

Washington state falls a bit below the middle. The average debt for graduates here was $18,987, ranking 35th highest in the country. Fifty-eight percent of students graduated with debt; that’s 27th highest in the country.

The average debt for students at Independent Colleges of Washington member institutions was a bit higher than the state average, just over $22,000. That’s a pretty small difference considering that average tuition is 4-to-5 times higher than it is at public colleges. Ninety percent of students receive some financial aid, including institutional aid which averages nearly $12,000. Coupled with state and federal grants, work study, and other scholarships, financial aid helps bring a high-quality, academically rigorous independent higher education within reach of all students, regardless of family income. You can learn more about the quality and affordability of private colleges in our annual fact book.

You can check out state-by-state data on the report, or download a PDF of the whole thing, from the Project on Student Debt Web site. There’s quite a bit of media coverage of the report, too, including the New York Times blog from yesterday and today, and CBS Moneywatch.

There’s been a fair amount of ink spilled and pixels expended in the last week about college enrollment and tuition. The College Board sparked the latest round of tuition talk with the release of its annual reports on tuition and financial aid earlier this week. As has been widely reported, tuition and fees at public baccalaureate colleges and universities are up 6.5 percent over last year, and at independent colleges the increase is 4.4 percent.

That jibes with what the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities found in a survey of its membership earlier this year, which put the average tuition increase at private colleges at 4.3 percent, the smallest in 37 years. Independent colleges boosted their financial aid budgets by nine percent, according to the survey.

In Washington we topped those numbers. Public baccalaureate institutions in the state are hiking tuition by 14 percent this year and next. The 10 members if Independent Colleges of Washington, on the other hand, raised tuition and fees 4.9 percent, on average. They also boosted their financial aid budgets by 10.2 percent. In all, ICW members will give more than $245 million of institutional financial aid to students this year. Ninety percent of students receive aid.

It’s important to keep that commitment to financial aid in mind. NAICU points out a fact from the College Board report that isn’t getting much coverage: inflation-adjusted net tuition—the true price students pay after financial aid—has actually dropped by 8.6 percent at independent colleges over the last five years.

Amid all of this, enrollment looks pretty good this fall. The Associated Press reported last week that, despite the sharp tuition increases, lots of students turned up for classes at the public institutions. ICW members’ enrollment rose by a little over 2.5 percent, which is a bit higher than their typical growth of one to two percent. Interestingly, there was a boomlet in transfer students, which are up 7.7 percent. Clearly, the institutions’ commitment to financial aid, and good investments in grant aid from the state and federal governments, have helped keep a rigorous independent higher education affordable for everyone.

ProjectOpportunity.net actively serves Washington parents and students seeking quality information on the college admissions process.

Independent Colleges of Washington debuted ProjectOpportunity.net in 2007 with support from the  Ben B. Cheney Foundation. We brought the best minds together to create the site: high school guidance counselors, the Washington Council of High School College Relations,  admissions and financial aid officers at our member colleges, and other experts in the field of higher education. And we have seen the results with visitors from throughout the state of Washington—and even across the globe!

While the site is updated throughout the year, in the spirit of constant improvement we want your thoughts!

Visit www.ProjectOpportunity.net and browse around. Before you leave, click on the red survey button in the upper left and leave us your thoughts in a quick survey. If you are a Washington high school or college student, you could be eligible for an Amazon Kindle or a $250 book scholarship!

Later this month, we are excited to launch a Spanish language translation and mini-site for students at the community colleges hoping to transfer to a four-year college. More information to come when the new sections go live.

Enjoy ProjectOpportunity.net, give us your thoughts, and pass on the Kindle / scholarship contest to any Washington students!

The president of Northeastern University, Joseph E. Aoun, wrote an opinion column Thursday for Inside Higher Ed lamenting the problems currently facing public higher education.

“[T]he crisis in the publics has the potential to undermine the high quality of American higher education as a whole. While state budget cuts may appear to be aimed at the publics, we will all be poorer if our renowned system is allowed to falter. As a result, everyone in the academy—even those of us in private institutions—should be thinking of ways to revitalize public higher education.”

The piece raises similar concerns as an article written for the Seattle Times late last year by the presidents of the 10 members of Independent Colleges of Washington.

“[W]e share the resolute belief that Washington must remain a leader in higher education, providing its public colleges and universities with funding adequate to sustain academic programs and also granting the neediest students, those who attend both public and private colleges and universities, sufficient financial aid to complete their studies successfully.”

A major part of Aoun’s solution is “progressive” tuition: free for students from families with incomes under a certain level—he suggests $100,000—and a sliding scale for those above.

Courtesy Gonzaga University/Hanne Zak

Interestingly, Washington’s Higher Education Coordinating Board this week issued a preliminary draft of proposed tuition policy for the state’s public baccalaureate institutions. The policy would essentially have the state pay at least 55 percent of the cost of educating undergraduates, with tuition and institutional revenue limited to no more than 45 percent. The HECB said the aim of the proposed policy is to “keep tuition moderate, ensure broad student access, and meet master plan goals for increased degree attainment,” but both the UW and Western Washington University criticized the proposal as being too inflexible and potentially harmful.

ICW was not invited to be part of that conversation. However we have written on numerous occasions that independent colleges are working examples of how the tuition sticker price can be higher, but robust financial aid can make education possible for those of modest means. Further, the state’s revenue picture continues to deteriorate and the legislature has long followed a fair-weather approach to funding the public institutions. Under those conditions and with limited revenue from tuition, it’s hard to imagine that educational quality and rigor can be maintained at enrollment levels adequate to make progress on the degree goals. (Despite increases of 14 percent this year and next, tuition at Washington state’s public institutions remains a bargain in comparison to that of many other states.)

We’d agree with Aoun that a more progressive tuition policy is in order.

There are tigers of change roaming loose in the land, and colleges need to figure out how to protect and defend themselves from the tigers, even figure out how to co-exist with them and benefit from their presence.

That was the message delivered by David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, in a talk Wednesday at Pacific Lutheran University. Warren spoke about four major challenges facing private colleges:

1) The financial base is eroding, and the partnership that formed in the 60s, focused on making college possible for all students, is unraveling.

2) The demographics of the college-going population are changing dramatically.

3) Distance education, or on-line learning, is challenging the fundamental architecture of teaching and learning.

4) The federal government is making a concerted effort to intrude on the day-to-day affairs of colleges.

Warren’s comments may sound somewhat on the pessimistic side, but in his concluding remarks he denies that:

“I am the house optimist… my belief is that every time we have been confronted with some sort of absolutely disruptive and calamitous event… our colleges came together, thought creatively, thought rigorously, and acted decisively. We’re at another one of those moments. I am persuaded that [we] will enter the third decade of this century  riding on the back of that tiger of change and not in its belly.”

Todd Ruberg

Everyone needs to step up and do their part to support higher education. That’s the messge from Todd Ruberg, general manager of customer business development at Procter & Gamble in Issaquah, who also serves on the board of directors of Independent Colleges of Washington.

Ruberg writes in an opinion column, published today in the Puget Sound Business Journal, that it’s important to provide rigorous educational opportunities for the many bright young people in our state. While the legislature did well in funding financial aid programs in the new state budget, he says the cutbacks in enrollment at public higher education institutions are disappointing at a time when employers are hurting for highly educated people. [Enrollment projections at Washington independent colleges look strong for the fall]

Ruberg adds that the buck doesn’t stop with the legislature:

There are a number of things that businesses and individuals can do to help. We can urge the government to give better support for higher education.

We can urge support for financial aid programs that make college accessible and affordable for low- and middle-income students who attend colleges, public or private, in our state. And we can and must take on some of the responsibility and do it ourselves.

Support colleges, and don’t forget private institutions which, while individually relatively small, together confer about a quarter of the bachelor’s and higher degrees earned in Washington each year.

Donating is easy, and 100 percent of gifts to Independent Colleges of Washington go directly to support scholarships for deserving students attending our 10 member institutions.

As Ruberg says, find a way to help. Our future depends on it.

Today students are the big winners in student aid.  As it gets more difficult to pay for college, Washington state and the federal government have really stepped up to help.

At the federal level, Pell Grant maximums go up to $5,350, and federal loans become less expensive for current students and for some students paying off their loans.

Interest rates for subsidized loans to current students drop to 5.6%.  These are the first loans students should pursue — you don’t have to pay interest while you’re in college; in fact the federal government pays it for you so it isn’t even tacked on at the end!

For students currently paying student loans, income based repayment just became available.  That means, you pay a certain percent of your income rather than a fixed amount.  When you’re just out of college a $400 monthly payment is much harder to make than after 10 years out.  Under this program, your payment will be lower when you’re  just out of college than it will be as your income increases.  And, the cherry on top is that after 25 years, what you haven’t paid is forgiven.  If you’re in certain service jobs, your loan could be forgiven as early as 10 years.

Here in Washington state, even with the difficult budget situation, the legislature strongly supported students by significantly increasing student aid.  Eligible students at ICW colleges will receive up to $6,876 in 2009-2010.

The combination of the increases in federal aid, the increases at the state level,  efforts our member colleges are making to increase aid, and ICW’s generous donors make a high quality liberal arts education possible for students in Washington.

To apply for any of these programs go to www.fafsa.ed.gov

I’ve written a couple of times about the increasing burden of textbook prices and the role of advanced technology in education. While technology is showing great promise in reducing the costs of course materials, revolutionizing teaching and learning also requires evolution in the process of innovation. Creative Commons is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding the legal foundation of creative works and sharing through free licenses. The licenses allow creators freedom over particular rights they wish to share for others’ benefits or withhold for private use. This facilitates a multi-directional flow of information, allowing people to more easily build off of the work of others and spur greater innovation. As opposed to standard copyrights (in which all rights are reserved for the creator), Creative Commons (CC) falls more under the copyleft movement. In general, copyleft refers to methods or processes for making programs, other works, or particular aspects of these works free.

Connexions is a perfect example of the CC license at work in the field of education. A global repository of educational content, Connexions offers content broken down into small chunks (modules) that can be linked together and arranged in different ways. The material is accessible for everyone, from children to college students to professionals. Authors can continually update their work, and develop others’ (with their permission), making it a dynamic system.

The educational content under Connexions includes hundreds of modules in the fields of mathematics, social sciences, arts, business, and more. This content has nearly unrivaled flexibility and adaptability for a variety of learning contexts. For example, Catherine Schmidt-Jones has developed open source music theory resources that have been used by students and teachers not only in the U.S. but also in Mongolia. Another great example is a module on electrical engineering which is available in English and Spanish. In fact, according to Cable Green of the SBCTC, the Spanish version has received as many hits as the English version, possibly more.

Online resources have the potential to offer substantial savings for both students and the state. Lower textbook costs mean a reduction in student debt and lighter burden on the state for financial aid (or on the flip side, freeing up more aid for others). In a conservative estimate by Cable Green and State Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-36th), a $750,000 investment to redesign 50 of the highest enrolled courses in the Community and Technical Colleges to include open educational resources would yield a $16.4 million savings. If that’s not deal, I don’t know what is.

In a post last week, I mentioned that college textbook prices have greatly increased over the last couple decades. Here’s a nice visual that says it all.

Annual % Increase in College Textbook Prices, College Tuition/Fees, and Overall Price Inflation (CPI)

Owing to the nature of state tuition support, textbook expenditures represent a far greater percentage of total cost for students at public colleges compared to private colleges. In the long run, online learning technology and open source educational resources will help to alleviate this problem. In the short run, perhaps the need grant can provide a more flexible pillar of financial support than tuition subsidies.

Rep. Reuven Carlyle

Online technology has played a pivotal role in helping students overcome the barriers of distance. Geographic isolation and competing demands are big problems for students dealing with the challenges of family life.   Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-36th) should be applauded for his efforts to push for more reform regarding online technology in higher education (HB1946).

One of my professors once told me that the cost of textbooks should never stand in the way of a higher education. Nevertheless, textbooks are not a negligible burden, having increased at an average of 6% per year since 1986 (twice the inflation rate and closely behind tuition). The push towards open-source textbooks is geared towards overcoming this obstacle. This allows faculty full creative control over the substance and release timing of the material. They can combine material together into custom packages that suit their particular preferences and needs. This also has incredible cost saving potential. Instead of having students buy a $180 textbook when only portions are used, why not have them download the relevant chapters for a fraction of the price? One of our very own professors at the University of Puget Sound has written an open-source textbook for teaching linear algebra.

Rep. Carlyle’s bill addresses many other issues beyond open-source textbooks, such as distance learning through networked conferencing and virtual classrooms. He also envisions linking different schools together through common operational systems and platforms (not reducing local control but eliminating redundency in cost and work through coordination). This sort of thinking is what is needed to achieve a paradigm shift in higher education and help pull us out of our current recession.