04/08/2011 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB107 | |
| SB6 | |
| Presentation: Fisher Report - University of Alaska | |
| Adjourn |
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| = | SB 107 | ||
| = | SB 6 | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
April 8, 2011
8:04 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Kevin Meyer, Co-Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Co-Chair
Senator Bettye Davis, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Gary Stevens
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 107
"An Act making special appropriations for new engineering
buildings for the University of Alaska in Anchorage and
Fairbanks."
- MOVED SB 107 OUT OF COMMITTEE
SENATE BILL NO. 6
"An Act relating to providing a prekindergarten program within a
school district; and providing for an effective date."
- HEARD & HELD
PRESENTATION: FISHER REPORT - UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA
- HEARD
REVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SB 107
SHORT TITLE: APPROP: UNIV. ENGINEERING BUILDINGS
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) ELLIS
03/21/11 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
03/21/11 (S) EDC, FIN
04/06/11 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
04/06/11 (S) Heard & Held
04/06/11 (S) MINUTE(EDC)
04/08/11 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
BILL: SB 6
SHORT TITLE: PREKINDERGARTEN SCHOOL PROGRAMS/PLANS
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) DAVIS, FRENCH
01/19/11 (S) PREFILE RELEASED 1/7/11
01/19/11 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/19/11 (S) EDC, FIN
02/28/11 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
02/28/11 (S) Scheduled But Not Heard
03/14/11 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
03/14/11 (S) Scheduled But Not Heard
03/25/11 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
03/25/11 (S) Heard & Held
03/25/11 (S) MINUTE(EDC)
03/30/11 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
03/30/11 (S) Scheduled But Not Heard
04/01/11 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
04/01/11 (S) Heard & Held
04/01/11 (S) MINUTE(EDC)
04/08/11 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
WITNESS REGISTER
THOMAS OBERMEYER, Staff
Senator Bettye Davis
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided a summary of changes of CSSB 6( ),
version I, from the original bill on behalf of the co-sponsor.
LILA HOBBS, Staff
Senator Hollis French
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced herself to the committee.
ELIZABETH NUDELMAN, Director
School Finance
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke to the fiscal note for CSSB 6( ),
version I.
WENDY REDMAN, Executive Vice President
University Relations
University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave a presentation on the Fisher Report for
the University of Alaska.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:04:32 AM
CO-CHAIR JOE THOMAS called the Senate Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:04 a.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators French, Davis, Co-Chair Meyer and Co-Chair
Thomas.
SB 107-APPROP: UNIV. ENGINEERING BUILDINGS
8:05:32 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced the consideration of SB 107.
8:05:48 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS closed public testimony.
8:06:54 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER moved to report SB 107 from the committee with
individual recommendations. There being no objections, SB 107
moved from the Senate Education Standing Committee.
SB 6-PREKINDERGARTEN SCHOOL PROGRAMS/PLANS
8:07:28 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced the consideration of SB 6.
8:07:34 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER moved to adopt the committee substitute (CS) for
SB 6, labeled 27-LS0058\I as the working document. Hearing no
objection, version I was before the committee.
8:08:00 AM
THOMAS OBERMEYER, Staff to Senator Bettye Davis, co-sponsor of
SB 6, introduced himself.
LILA HOBBS, Staff to Senator Hollis French, co-sponsor of SB 6,
introduced herself.
MR. OBERMEYER said version I changes the age of the students
enrolled in a public prekindergarten program from "4 and 5 years
of age" to "4 years of age". He noted that this version also
provides for the inclusion of the prekindergarten students in
the student count and changes the inclusion of these students
from "part time" to "not more than a half-time". He asked if the
committee would like him to read the sponsor statement.
SENATOR DAVIS said the sponsor statement has already been read.
She asked Mr. Obermeyer to go through the changes that have been
made to version I in comparison to the original bill.
MR. OBERMEYER said Section 1, subsection (a), on page 1,
describes a prekindergarten program for students four years of
age. He explained that the bill previously had included both
four- and five-year-olds. However, five-year-olds can be
enrolled in a regular kindergarten program.
On page 2, Section 3, subsection (b), an exception was removed
regarding the estimated count [for the first year of the
program]. He explained that the Department of Education and
Early Development (DEED) cannot fund an estimated count. This
change now allows the department to make the regular count in
October and will set the dollar amount for those students
enrolled already for that school year.
Finally, and most importantly for the fiscal note, on page 2,
lines 13-16, a student who is enrolled in a prekindergarten
program provided by a district shall be counted as not more than
half-time. He explained that previously the bill included the
wording "part-time"; however, there are a number of different
types of "part-time" students.
8:12:29 AM
SENATOR FRENCH said the previous fiscal note was based on a
cohort of four- and five-year-olds attending prekindergarten
half-time, which is what currently occurs with a kindergarten
class. He asked if this is correct.
MR. OBERMEYER replied that, in his understanding, DEED took the
current number of five-year-olds currently in kindergarten and
assumed that all four-year-olds would be moving into that age
group in the next year and included them in the ADM [Average
Daily Membership] on a full-time basis. This greatly inflated
the previous fiscal note. He added that he has not heard from
the department yet since version I had to be adopted before DEED
would speak to the fiscal note. However, in his understanding,
this may cut the fiscal note in half.
SENATOR FRENCH said he will follow up with the department. He
asked for confirmation that the number of hours per day that a
child would spend in a prekindergarten program is about half a
day.
MR. OBERMEYER replied yes. He noted that this is a part-time and
an optional program.
8:14:53 AM
ELIZABETH NUDELMAN, Director, School Finance, Department of
Education and Early Development (DEED), spoke to the fiscal note
for CSSB 6, version I. She explained that the department used
the kindergarten cohort as the total number of students who
would be eligible for the new program and applied a one-half
full time equivalent. She said in doing so this makes the fiscal
note one-half of the previous fiscal note, which calculated each
prekindergarten student as full-time. The new fiscal note is
anticipated to be $41.826 million.
She noted that the fiscal note also acknowledged the changes in
version I regarding the reference of four-year-olds as opposed
to four- and five-year-olds. She explained that the change in
age does not change the amount in the fiscal note, since the
focus is on one cohort.
She continued that in changing and removing the funding from an
estimate to an actual October count, the department's feedback
is that this program funds on "actuals" and she does not know
how close an estimate would be. She recommended that this
program be funded through an actual count. She added that the
fiscal note does not address the facility issue and DEED would
not anticipate anything large in the initial year's fiscal note,
if at all.
8:17:39 AM
SENATOR FRENCH asked for confirmation that the foundation
formula pays the same for children whether they are in
kindergarten or 12th grade.
MS. NUDELMAN replied yes.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if DEED has done any research into whether
the costs are actually the same for each grade or if that is the
way the department divides out the amount of money to be spent.
MS. NUDELMAN replied that's the way the department divides out
the money it spends. She explained that the department has not
specifically studied the differences.
SENATOR FRENCH said the reason he raises this question is that
while he would like to leave the fiscal note small, he wants to
have a quality prekindergarten program, which might cost more.
He asked her to look into this over the interim.
SENATOR DAVIS said the kindergarten program can be looked at as
a good model where the funding formula is working. She
reiterated that the previous fiscal note was highly inflated
because four- and five-year-olds were both included. She asked
for confirmation that the department simply cut the fiscal note
in half.
MS. NUDELMAN replied yes.
SENATOR DAVIS asked for confirmation that the fiscal note is now
$41 million.
MS. NUDELMAN replied yes.
SENATOR DAVIS said she is disappointed that the committee has
received no input from DEED with regard to the bill, except
about the fiscal note. She said that with such an important
topic, it would be expected that there be some response from the
department. She stressed that the legislature is responsible for
providing education for Alaska's children and needs to come up
with a program that will work. She noted that this bill does not
force schools to have a prekindergarten program, but there are a
lot of schools that do want it. She said that she is going to do
everything that she can to get the message out to the public in
order to get input on it. She opined that the volunteer programs
and the pilot program don't meet the needs of all of the state's
students.
8:22:41 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS said he understands it is difficult for the
department to take a position when the governor has not made his
position clear.
SENATOR DAVIS took issue with that.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS said that with regard to moving forward, the
committee has had some discussions with the Alaska Early
Childhood Coordinating Council and will schedule some meetings
in the fall to help put together a more structured plan for next
session.
CO-CHAIR MEYER added that the committee did write a letter to
the council requesting that it give some formal presentations to
the committee during the interim on prekindergarten. He said
hopefully the council will also look at SB 6. There are a lot of
good things going on in the pre-K area, however there doesn't
appear to be a central coordinating effort to help the
legislature efficiently provide prekindergarten. He said SB 6
goes a long way in doing just this.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS concurred. He announced he would hold SB 6 in
committee.
^Presentation: Fisher Report - University of Alaska
PRESENTATION: FISHER REPORT - UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA
8:24:52 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced that the next order of business would
be to hear a presentation from the University of Alaska (UA) on
the Fisher Report.
8:25:21 AM
WENDY REDMAN, Executive Vice President, University Relations,
University of Alaska, brought the committee's attention to a
Power Point Presentation titled, Fisher Report UA Institutional
Review [presentation included in the document packet]. She
explained that the University of Alaska's president, Pat Gamble,
with support from the Rasmuson Foundation, commissioned a
consultant to do a broad review of the UA system. The purpose of
the report was:
1. To assist the president of the Board of Regents in assessing
the overall condition of the UA system.
2. To advice on the attitudes of the university and the system
constituencies.
3. To candidly identify and address issues and opportunities
affecting the UA system.
4. To recommend a tentative agenda for the future, which could
be used in strategic planning.
She explained that President Gamble came in during a time when
the UA's strategic plan had just ended and he wanted some "new
eyes" on the issues that the university is facing. Dr. Fisher
and a group of five additional individuals came for six days and
met with several hundred people. She said that there are things
in the report that make everyone happy and other things that
make every constituency unhappy.
She said Dr. Fisher identified five of the most significant
challenges the university system will face over the course of
the next year.
She began with the first significant challenge:
How much should the UAA campus be developed in size
and programs and to what extent might (should) this
occur at the expense of UAF?
She explained that this challenge impacts many other issues at
the university currently and is an issue that many states are
facing. At this point UA is trying to work carefully with the
campuses in order to clarify what the missions of each campus
are and have the Board of Regents be able to distinctly identify
different institutional goals.
She said that some of the specific recommendations that fell
under this category included program specialization
(particularly at the graduate level); graduate program size;
that UAA's research should focus on social, behavioral, and
education; that UAF's research should focus on science and
engineering; program collaboration; and enhanced E-learning and
distance education.
8:32:52 AM
MS. REDMAN continued with the second significant challenge:
How can the University of Alaska further improve its
performance in critical areas such as student
retention, student graduation, and externally
recognized academic quality?
She noted that this is where the Fisher Report overlapped with
the Higher Education/Career Readiness Task Force. She explained
that these are the issues that President Gamble has recognized
as the most important for him at this point. The movement of the
K-12 system to measure the outcome of schools is now coming back
to the universities, she added. She explained that while there
are majors that are part of a professional program which can be
measured, with general education and liberal art students these
measurements don't exist.
She noted that UA's retention rates in Alaska are the lowest in
the nation. There are a lot of reasons for that, one of which is
the way the system is organized, with many of the community
colleges and universities combined. She explained that when the
community colleges and universities are "teased apart" the UA
system ranks about average in the nation. "Which isn't very
good…in this country right now, in terms of student retention
and graduation," she said. One of the recommendations from the
report was how to determine retention and graduation rates. She
explained that because students attending community campuses
have different goals (their goal is not to graduate and get a
degree), these individuals should not be included in that count.
After a research study done by UA a few years ago to track
students who had left UAA, it was found that when individuals
were asked why they left, the overwhelming answer was: "we got
what we came for."
She added that the national data is based on five-year
graduation rates. However, when looking at the 10-year
graduation rate for UAA, the university is suddenly at the
national norm. She explained that this may correlate with the
high employment rate of Alaska, because when people are working
they aren't in school. She added that 80 percent of UAA's
students go to school part-time and it takes longer to graduate.
8:37:16 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked for confirmation that anyone who takes a
class at the university could be considered a drop out, simply
because they don't complete their education.
MS. REDMAN replied that on the national data students have to
state that they are at the university in order to obtain a
specific degree. She explained that this means that even if a
student has not been accepted into a specific degree program,
they are included in the data for completion or lack of
completion.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked for confirmation that an individual who
takes one class at a community college would not be considered a
"failure."
MS. REDMAN replied no, not right now.
She said on the national level there are three groups working on
the issue of completion for college students including Compete
to Complete. She noted that there is going to be a lot of focus
on this in the next few years. She noted that the university can
no longer "point the finger" at schools for the unpreparedness
of students. It is important to work with schools in order to
figure out what areas the university and [K-12] schools need to
help enhance a student's ability to be successful in college.
She provided the committee with some current programs that work
very effectively, including the summer academies and pre-college
experiences. She noted that in the last three years these K-12
summer institutes have had a high priority within the
university's budget request. She added that participation with
Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Youth Groups are high predictors of
success in college.
She continued that there has been work internally to make sure
that barriers have been taken down within the university, such
as transferability and high-quality advising. She added that the
university can make advising mandatory for the Alaska Scholars
and the new scholars coming in with [the Alaska Performance
Scholarship] program, which will greatly enhance these
individuals' success.
8:40:46 AM
SENATOR FRENCH asked what can be done to advertise UA's
qualities to students around the nation.
MS. REDMAN replied that marketing can be very expensive, which
has meant that not a lot has been done in the past few years.
She explained that the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) uses
targeted marketing in outdoor magazines and UAF and UAA did a
joint recruiting trip this year in Washington and California.
She added that the university system is trying to be very
innovative and focused in its undergraduate recruitment.
SENATOR FRENCH said that Alaska provides unique outdoor
opportunities and this strength should be capitalized on.
MS. REDMAN commented that this has been very successful.
SENATOR FRENCH noted that he was not aware that UAS was
advertising in outdoor magazines.
MS. REDMAN added that UAF has to get past the "cold" aspect and
came up with a series of ads that make cold look fun.
8:43:12 AM
SENATOR DAVIS asked if there have been any studies on the
success (or not success) of merging the community colleges with
the three main campuses and what student retention was like
prior to this merge versus now.
MS. REDMAN replied that she was the vice chancellor of the
community college division when it was merged with the
university campuses. She added that she did not believe it was a
good idea at the time. However, at this point, to go backwards
is not realistic, she opined. Anchorage has tried to segregate
and present different doorways for students who are less
prepared for college. Fairbanks has moved in the other direction
and have higher university entry standards. She explained that
for UAF this was easier because its community college campus was
not "sharing real estate;" this is not the case for UAA.
She added that community colleges around the state would
probably state that the current system is preferable. For
students, it has probably been better because there are no
transfer issues. However, every new president that she has
worked with has come to her at some point and noted that it was
not a good idea to merge these two together. She reiterated
that, at this point, it would be too difficult to separate the
two.
8:47:19 AM
She continued with significant challenge 3:
How can the University of Alaska prepare for a future
that plausibly could involve diminished oil tax
revenues, increased emphasis upon non-petroleum
sources of economic activity, and gradually rising
average annual temperatures?
She noted that she is unclear what "gradually rising average
annual temperatures" means, however, Dr. Fisher would not take
it out.
She added that, in general, challenge three is the overriding
issue that UA is facing internally.
CO-CHAIR MEYER said that he too is not sure what the gradually
rising average temperatures means. However, he agreed that the
diminishing oil money is an issue. He asked what is being done
to prepare for the day when that money runs out and whether some
of the land that was set aside for the university could be used
as a source of funding by either selling or leasing it out. He
added that he is aware that UA's alumni donations are very low.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS noted that President Gamble was previously the
president of the [Alaska Railroad Corporation], which has a fare
amount of income that comes from real estate. He said that he
would likely have some insight as to how that operations works.
MS. REDMAN replied that the 250,000 acres given to UA was taken
back by the Alaska Supreme Court, which stated that it basically
constituted an appropriation. She explained that after two years
of attempting to get this land back, it was decided that the
university should wait until there was a new and more
"favorable" [Department of Natural Resources (DNR)] to work
with. She noted that the commitment for this land does still
exist.
She said that the university is making a lot of money on the
land that it currently has (about 140,000 acres) and funds the
UA scholars' program with this money.
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked for clarification that she is discussing
the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
MS. REDMAN replied yes.
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked "do we have that now?"
MS. REDMAN [shook her head, no.]
CO-CHAIR MEYER said the legislature spent a lot of time on that
land. He said he thought that it had been worked out.
MS. REDMAN said "so did I." However, the university had to
relitigate the entire thing back through the legislature, where
it never left the House Resources Committee.
She added that there has been renewed energy on fund raising.
She explained that UA's alumni fundraising is very low
nationally and there is a lot of room for improvement. Private
philanthropy in Alaska is also very low nationally. This is a
difficult state and there are a lot of challenges to overcome.
She said that part of the challenge is being met by the
university's own work of teaching students about what it means
to give back and be philanthropists themselves. This has begun
with students who are recipients of scholarships and encouraging
them to give back once they are employed. She said "we need to
build that into their psyche."
She said with regard to the future, a flat budget is assumed for
the university, which could be the best case scenario. For UA
this means reallocating a lot of internal resources and not
starting any new programs.
She said that UA is doing a program review of the system
administration. She added that the Mac Taggart Report for the
University of Alaska is another consultant report which focused
specifically on statewide administration. There are a lot of
groups that are working on the financial and risk management of
the university and other "backroom" functions that keep the
university moving between campuses and the system level.
[CO-CHAIR THOMAS turned the gavel over to Co-Chair Meyer.]
8:55:50 AM
MS. REDMAN continued with the fourth significant challenge:
How can the University of Alaska be organized in order
to reduce its costs and increase its performance?
She said the proposal to add a common core curriculum has caused
some consternation among campuses. Many people in the public are
surprised to find that the university does not have this. There
is a lot of internal conversation regarding this topic and while
it is not a big money saver it would be good for students, she
opined.
She noted that the elimination of ineffective and low enrollment
programs is done every ten years, however, this needs to be done
on a more regular basis.
8:57:03 AM
MS. REDMAN continued with the fifth significant challenge:
President Gamble must develop and endorse a model
which sharpens the mission(s), generates support and
reduces costs.
She explained that President Gamble is currently working on
developing a strategic plan which acknowledges the reality of
the resource situation in the state, in order to reallocate and
collaborate internally to meet the needs Alaska has. She noted
that this is a large challenge without any new general fund
money. Any funding allocations for the university's growth will
have to come internally.
CO-CHAIR MEYER said it appears that the system may be a bit top-
heavy. He said that at some point he would like to understand
what it takes to become a Division I school; he noted that in
order to attract students, many like the prestige of this label.
He said that this would conclude the Senate Education Standing
Committee meetings for the session. He reminded the committee
that, because the legislature is in the 24 hour notice, that the
co-chairs reserve the right to call members back.
9:00:27 AM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Co-Chair Meyer adjourned the meeting at 9:00 a.m.
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