There’s a pattern emerging in Olympia this session that suggests a longterm strategy toward funding higher education. Or rather, not funding it.
Of course there’s the $482 million of new cuts to our state’s public colleges and universities, a 50 percent reduction from state funding levels just a few years ago. Then there’s the recently signed bill instructing state universities to develop three-year programs that award the same baccalaureate degree while requiring a quarter fewer credits. And finally, earlier this week the governor signed a bill creating our state’s first “nonprofit online university.”
While the Seattle Times touts the Western Governors University-Washington as “an amazingly good deal,” it strikes me more than anything as amazingly cheap in both senses of the word. It’s not that I’m totally opposed to distance learning—it’s got its place, I suppose—it’s just that it is in no way a substitute for the full college experience all qualified students deserve. Yet despite their protestations, that’s exactly where I fear lawmakers are heading.
Yeah, additional options are great an all that, but what I don’t see legislators focusing on is scaring up the revenues necessary to fund the option the vast majority of Washington’s young people want: affordable access to a quality four-year university. You know, exactly the kinda public college and university system state budget writers somehow managed to afford for decades.
And until I see that sort of commitment, I’m going to continue to view “reforms” like this with deep suspicion.
And the state university system’s slide into University of Phoenix-dom continues.
I hope it fails to get accreditation.
I think you have far too many legislators (not to mention editorial writers) who think, well hell, I didn’t go to a four-year university like the UDub and look at me, I’m doin’ just fine. All the arguments supporting higher ed are abstractions to them. They certainly don’t buy the arguments enough to (perish the thought) raise taxes!
there is only one priority in both parties in this country, and that is giving rich individuals & entities the best possible deal at every opportunity, no matter the cost. that is the one guiding value within our nation’s political system(s). i don’t see how any other conclusion can be argued when we are cutting taxes nationwide to give more to the rich & paying for it w/ cuts to education & health care for poor kids.
Hey Goldy–check into Minnesota. Here, they’re trying to make driver’s education go online. That sounds o safe and cheap…
If the in-state workforce demand for college degrees exceeds the number of degrees being issued, then fund higher ed sufficiently to allow more students to attend traditional degree programs. This is just a chickenshit end around to avoid making the needed-but-politically-challenging investments in higher ed. It sucks to think that people looking to finish their degrees (like the Mrs.) or pursue further education (like me) will end up having to choose from exorbitantly priced traditional programs or this. Oh well, at least the football team will be fully funded, eh Fnarf?
@5, the football team will always make its nut. Of that we can be sure.
There’s always diploma mills, Hernandez. A nice framed piece of paper from “Harvard State University” or “Princetown College” would look nice. Your final exam is easy. One question: “enter your Paypal password here”.
http://www.athabascau.ca
Will there be Democrats to vote for the next election in place of the clowns we have now?
Countdown to closure of CWU, WWU, and EWU in 5, 4, 3…
WGU is a crooked organization, with special favors and $$ handed out to the Leavitt family – as in Mike Leavitt, former gov of Utah and later the improbable head of HHS – and their cronies. I’d love to say more, but a few of my professors in UT have their mitts in the pie too, and until I finish my degree, I’d best be quiet.
The state budget writers somehow managed to afford the quality four-year university system for decades precisely because many fewer students got access to it.
Once more: total real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) state spending on Washington’s university system has not been falling; it has been constant to rising for a long time. Per student real state spending has been falling for a long time because that money has been distributed among an ever-larger fraction of the population that attends college. If you want to state-fund the higher educations of the best and brightest, you need to really limit that to the just the best and brightest. If you want to make “higher education” available to more than half of all high school graduates, then you will need to dumb it down and cheapen it. Take your pick.
I’ve been wondering how legit that WGU is since Mitch (would you like to buy a tollroad) Daniels announced it here in Indiana. We already have 3 excellent Universities with regional campuses, and a network of community colleges, and then he announced this great new school. I don’t trust him.
@11
quite to the contrary, the evidence suggests that broadening the number of students that get a higher education can be funded simply by taxing the rich at a reasonable rate. seems like a winner for the society to me. do we really think that the answer going forward is to educate less people?
hmmm, that wasn’t actually my final post. i changed the last sentence to… do we really think that the answer going forward to to educate fewer young people so that the old & rich can hoard more money? what kind of a society makes that decision?*
* the easy, and unfortunate, answer is our society.
@13-14: You are welcome to try to persuade voters that the government should take more money from taxpayers and use it to buy more higher-education that it did in the past, whether by higher-educating more students or by spending more on the higher-education of each student. I didn’t really mean to take a position for or against that in my post. I am just pointing out that the state has, in fact, been buying as much or more higher-education as it ever did. It has, until now, simply chosen to spread that spending among ever more students.
Guess they don’t call it the university of 1,000 years anymore or however that saying went…
WGU has been a great option for me and I went to a traditional 4 year university also. I am an older student who does not have the ability or time to travel in Seattle traffic to a traditional college to get my degrees and WGU gives me that flexibility. As a non profit university (unlike University of Phoenix) and others, I feel my money is being used to actually fund MY education not line the pockets of Administrators. Finally, I feel I am getting an equally challenging education to what I received in my traditional university with even more contact with professors and mentors than I ever had in my earlier educational experience.
I am currently a student at WGU and a Eastern Washington resident. I’m a Stay at home mother to a special needs 2 year old daughter and 5 year old son. My husband is a firefighter/emt who works 24-48 hour shifts. We can not put our daughter in day care so I can go to school, and with my husbands shifts I could never attend classes regularly. WGU has given me the option of going to college where before I had none. I study 4-5 hours a night after the children go to bed. Take my tests when my husband is off shift. Believe me the tests and the course material isn’t easy stuff. I was proud to say that I am a WGU student and now I am even more proud to become a WGU-Washington student. Making furthering you education an easier option for people will only increase our potential in this state.
I started my education at University of Phoenix. It wasn’t extremely expensive and I left for a better education. I also was not happy with them when they used shady practices to keep me in another quarter. I didn’t fall for it and left for the local community college.
I soon gave birth to a child that was severely disabled and had to stop working and school in order to care for him. I had no chance of going to college and completing my education unless it was at an online school. However even online schools seem to be a challenge for me with the erratic schedule and life threatening emergencies that came up on a consistent basis.
A friend then told me about WGU and it was a perfect fit for my life. 3 years later I am close to graduation with my bachelors in Accounting. I finally have some hope to get my family completely off of public assistance. The journey has not been an easy one for me. With every class requiring a B to pass and final exams being proctored and not open book, I have had to work hard and put in the time as with a traditional college. I am proud to be a WGU student and will be even prouder to be a graduate come next spring!
Geez-
I’m a WGU student and its HARD! You still have to find time to study- tests are in FRONT OF A CAMERA and it’s by no means an easy road to take. I personally hold a full time job, and have a family ( husband, 2 teenagers) to deal with. On-line is my ONLY option. There would not be enough hours in the day for me to DRIVE to school and back ( much less the money, especially at almost $4 gallon!) plus do my job, plus my homework, plus the kids, plus the hubby-
If the state wants to keep cutting educational funding, then this will be the only option for a majority of us!
Having been a student in both types of institutions and a proud graduate of WGU, I must say I am thrilled with Washington’s decision to further support Western Governors University. While working on my bachelors degree in Elementary Education, I worked three jobs in order to support myself and acheive my goals. You talk about the “college experience” that “qualified students” deserve. I am a highly qualified student, and worked my butt off throughout high school and community college to earn my acceptance into many public and private colleges and universities. When faced with family crisis, I made a decision to instead continue with my educational pursuits through WGU. It was the only way I could take care of my family and receive my education. So, instead of gaining the “full college experience” like many of my friends and family of getting drunk, living off of student loan money in a studio with a stranger, passing classes with while not achieving complete competency, and wearing an unlimited supply of school memorabilia, I went to a university that allowed me to challenge myself through intensive study, required me to pass every section of every assignment in every class with at least a B grade or better, and made me an independent worker and asset to any educational facility. Right out of WGU’s education program, I gained my own classroom through which I am already a major part of reform in our school. Ask new teacher graduates in Washington State how they’re doing in their job hunts right now. WGU made me a desired candidate. Our physical state universities will always have teens anxious to attend in order to escape their parents and gain the “college experience”, but if you look at my peers at WGU they are a different clientele. We are a group of students of all ages who are serious about our studies. We have our own frills. We don’t need our school to charge us to provide those.
I’ve been a WGU student for two years, (with a six month hardship break) and have about a year to go. The coursework is as rigorous as any I had in 4 year institutions (both WWU and UW). The difference is flexibility, cost, and honestly, the support. I have more one to one support from both the student and academic mentors with WGU than I ever had the one of our State universities. The cost is almost 1/4 of what the University of Phoenix costs and I appreciate the idea behind it’s non-profit premise. Governor Mike Lowry was one of the original governors behind WGU (Western Governors University) who wanted to create a non-profit affordable education for non-traditional students. That being said, while I am happy to have WGU partnering with Washington State, I agree with the author that it does not entirely address the problem of affordable, FUNDED, education in Washington State. Four year degrees, for most, take five. Cutting down degree programs won’t necessarily help funding issues and it begs the question of turning out highly qualified candidates. Additionally, with the proposed cuts to public education in general (and as a public school educator myself), I question whether or not graduating high school seniors will have had a solid enough base education to afford to ‘miss’ whatever they cut out of degree programs. Education in Washington is in trouble – it’s up to the voters to get their priorities straight and quit voting for things that hamstring our economy and our revenue and give our children a shot at an educated future.
I am a WGU student who happens to work for a brick-and-mortar Washington state university. As a non-traditional student (over 35, married, kids, working), WGU is a much better fit for my time and budget! Before WGU, I attended traditional colleges, taking both online and on campus: I earned my Associate’s through University of Alaska, and I’m finishing my Bachelor’s at WGU. Trust me, WGU is no cake walk. It’s almost more difficult than traditional classes because you need to be disciplined enough to make the time to study instead of just showing up to class, and you need to prove that you really know the material to pass the exams.
I agree that if a student pays for an education, it should be a quality education, but that doesn’t mean online colleges such as WGU provide an inferior education experience. And the idea of a “full college experience all qualified students deserve” is ludicrous. WGU offers a different option to students, and I, for one, am glad I took that option.
FYI that WGU has posted this on their Facebook page and asked students to comment here. Nothing like asking your customers to do the dirty work of changing public opinion for you!