Higher ed’s reallocation bill well-positioned to becoming law

The legislative bill calling for fund reallocations across Utah’s public universities and colleges easily survived a Senate committee hearing Wednesday — but not before a bit of pushback from lawmakers and the public.

When word began spreading last year among academic circles that a legislative push for higher education budget cuts and reallocation was coming, many worried that liberal arts programs would be on the business end of the cuts.

Proponents of the bill, meanwhile, argued that Utah’s higher ed institutions needed to better prioritize industry-alignment in their course offerings — while cinching-up costly inefficiencies.

On Wednesday, Senate Education Committee Chair John Johnson, R-North Ogden, voted to move House Bill 265 to the Senate floor, but he took a moment to warn of “culture wars” that are eroding “the greatness” of a university education.

“I believe that postmodernists have done their duty, and they’ve really injured the pursuit of the liberal arts within a university, and there’s some backlash because of that from society,” said Johnson, an emeritus college professor.

“But I hope that we don’t make the same mistake when we look at workforce alignment.”

Competency-based learning, added Johnson, is a good notion. University students need to be prepared for future jobs. But there’s danger in blurring the lines between industry-alignment training and what it means to gain a university education.

“I look back at my education, and some of the most valuable things I learned were from philosophers and from my French literature class and from my classes in the humanities and the social sciences,” he said.

“I hope that somehow we can set out a boundary in this bill to really articulate that — and I don’t believe it’s in this space that it actually needs to be in.”

Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, voiced concern for employees whose jobs may be cut during the reallocation process without receiving adequate due process, especially in light of recent legislative modifications to collective bargaining.

A public school teacher, Riebe said teachers in the K-12 community are “more stressed than ever” by increased legislation.

“Now I feel like we’re expanding this into our higher ed systems by creating a system that is measured constantly,” she said. “Education shouldn’t be just about measuring people all the time — and it shouldn’t be about just being employable.

“It should be really about those soft skills, and we’ve lost that completely.”

Riebe concluded by saying that the Legislature should indeed have oversight over its higher education institutions — “But I think this has gone too far.”

Public opinion mixed on strategic reinvestment bill

Jon England, representing Libertas Institute, said he supports HB265.

“We support the Legislature taking this step and process in finding ways to reduce costs and hope that they can find ways to also reduce the cost and time (to earn a degree),” said England.

“That being said, we would like to see the Legislature to define what ‘qualitative’ and ‘quantitative’ measures mean in the bill … making sure you’re getting the type of information from these reports that you would like to see.”

Brianne Kramer, representing the American Federation of Teachers-Utah College Council (the union for Utah’s university faculty and staff), has taught in higher education for 16 years — including several years in Utah.

She appreciates that the cuts facing Utah’s higher education institutions may not be as severe as those seen in other states.

“However, we do have some ongoing concerns — including the bill’s possibility to harm sectors of the workforce in communities in which colleges and universities are major employers.”

Students, said Kramer, will also be harmed if instructional programs are cut.

“Students (would) lose opportunities to choose the majors and minors that they want and that are best suited for their careers, interests and passions — and they also lose opportunities to take a broad range of classes.”

Utah students, she added, would also take an economic hit if they have to travel further to pursue their chosen degrees because study programs are cut at their local colleges.

Kramer also asked that the bill be amended to ensure faculty, staff and students are included in reallocation decisions.

The pitch for the education strategic reinvestment bill

“I want to first start by saying how much I appreciate the role higher education plays in our state,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, during her Wednesday committee presentation.

“Higher education is critical. We need a strong higher education system. We need a strong system of colleges and universities, and I’m grateful that we have that. I’m grateful that we can continue to make sure that those institutions are responsive to changes — both in industry, but also changes in student demands and needs.”

So what does Peterson’s “Strategic Reinvestment” bill do?

HB265 establishes a strategic reinvestment fund for Utah’s eight degree-seeking colleges and universities. The state’s base budget approved by the Legislature last month removed $60 million from the combined budgets from the eight schools.

Each institution’s budget “cut” was different — accounting for things such as the size of each school’s student body and its unique institutional mission.

The University of Utah, for example, had $19.5 million pulled from its budget. The much smaller, regional Southern Utah University had $3.1 million pulled. And the state’s largest two-year institution, Salt Lake Community College, had $5.2 million pulled.

But the dollars cut from each school’s budget are not necessarily lost for good. Each school, according to the bill, can recover their “cut” funds as they work through a fairly lengthy reallocation process.

The dollars pulled from each of the schools’ respective budgets were moved to Utah Board of Higher Education, where it will go through an iterative process as each college or university develops their own strategic reinvestment plans.

The institutions, according to HB265, would then present their respective strategic plans to the board in the coming months — and then ultimately to the Legislature.

The Legislature’s Executive Appropriations Committee would have opportunities to review each institution’s reallocation plans and, if approved, release the funds back to the institutions to execute their respective reallocation plans.

Assuming HB265 becomes law, Utah’s higher education institutions will be required to instigate a process of evaluating several factors such as enrollment, high-demand programs and job outcomes of graduates.

That data will then inform their respective reallocation plans to identify optimized investment returns.

The schools are also being asked to boost efficiencies by making modifications such as combining colleges and administrative positions.

The second part of HB265 limits bachelor’s degrees to no more than 120 credit hours — with allowances if programs require additional credit hours if they require accreditation or licensing.

The bill allows the state’s university and college presidents to formulate a reinvestment plan at their individual schools — working within a matrix of several criteria, rather than a single formulaic approach.

There are also strategic planning allowances for nuances, such as the demand for durable skills that often come from general education and the liberal arts.

“These are three year plans,” explained Peterson on Wednesday. “We know that it takes some time to think about that. We want to ensure that students who have started programs don’t have the rug pulled out from underneath them; that they can complete the programs that they’re in.”

Each year, Peterson added, lawmakers will check with the state’s higher education institutions as they implement their reallocation strategies — while examining evolving student needs, interests and trends.

Delivering essential ‘durable skills’ to Utah industry

On Wednesday, Utah Commissioner of Higher Education Geoffrey Landward emphasized that higher education is “critical to the prosperity and success of the state of Utah.”

The state will continue to prioritize its investment in higher education.

“However, we recognize as a Board of Higher Education that the state of Utah does not have unlimited resources at its disposal, and that means that we bear significant responsibility and stewardship over the resources that we are given.”

Every dollar the state provides to higher education, he added, should double as reliable investment for taxpayers and students.

Landward emphasized the flexibilities that will exist within the board’s broad criteria for evaluating each institution’s reinvestment plans. They will not use formulaic approaches. There will be allowances for nuances.

It’s important, for example, that graduates take durable skills into the workplace. That’s a need Utah’s industries are demanding.

“Durable skills can come from several different educational methodologies,” said Landward. “We want the institutions to be able to say, ‘Well, that’s a workforce demand. How are we meeting that?’

“‘And how would that be reflected in how we invest the resources that we have?’”

Ultimately, the board will want to see that Utah’s higher education institutions are putting together strategic reinvestment plans that create value — and offer the best possible return on investment for the taxpayers and the students, said Landward.