Position Statement From AASCU on Higher Education Reauthorization Act Changes Pending in Congress

Dear Colleagues,

In recent weeks, there have been growing indications that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce is preparing to introduce and mark-up a comprehensive bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). Committee staff has been meeting with association representatives, including AASCU staff, to broadly discuss their framework and hear our concerns. 

These meetings, while certainly welcome and much appreciated, have not been particularly fruitful in shaping a bill that improves on current law. As a reminder, as of 2015, the HEA no longer sunsets as it did over the decades since its inception, and its reauthorization is not legally necessary for programs authorized under current law to continue. Without the threat of program termination, a discretionary reauthorization like this one should be judged against the baseline of existing programs to see which version better delivers on the promise of access and opportunity for students and families. Based on what little is known to date, we unfortunately suspect that current law, with all of its shortcomings, may be significantly preferable to the coming House bill.

We have heard that the legislation will be introduced this Friday, December 1st, and that the Committee mark-up will take place on Thursday, December 7th. The speed with which the Committee apparently intends to modify and approve such a significant revision of the law—a mere six days from the unveiling to Committee approval—is itself a problem in that it prevents observers (and many Committee members) from understanding and analyzing the bill’s intended and unintended effects. We have been told that the exact timeline may change, but that the Committee does intend to mark-up a bill before the end of this calendar year.

The following is a “semi-official” summary of the bill’s possible provisions. The descriptions are intended to cast as positive a light on the changes the Committee may intend to make to current law, most of which won’t be fully known until the actual text of the legislation is released. Based on this very tentative summary, we are concerned that the bill could cut important benefits—SEOG, in-school student loan subsidies, caps and limitations for loan availability, redefining full-time eligibility for aid to 15 credits, and TRIO changes, to name a few. We are concerned that it will dilute what aid remains available by expanding eligibility of new providers (presumably coding boot camps and other short-term for-profit players), and eliminating critical distinctions between non-profit colleges and universities and for-profit companies. This latter change would not only diminish the value of legitimate academic credentials by comingling vastly different types of institutions, it would also potentially diminish available university funding under other titles or other federal laws by rendering for-profits eligible for programs for which they are currently ineligible. In addition, there are indications that some of the changes amorphously described as improvements may in fact introduce risk-sharing for institutions of higher education, significantly expand the federal government’s role in mandating academic policy, and alter accreditation in problematic ways.

We are sharing this information only to advise you that a House bill is imminent and may move quickly. It is important to note that the information we have is unconfirmed and that the official draft may look different from the current descriptions. In addition, little is known about changes to other titles of the HEA. We will share additional information with you as we learn more.


A Deal that Works for America’s Students


The Committee’s Higher Education Act reforms will Promote Innovation, Access, and Completion by:

  • Providing low-income students access to new providers of higher education by allowing those providers to join with traditional colleges and universities for the entirety of a student’s educational program.
  • Encouraging on-time completion by updating the definition of an academic year.
  • Repealing the antiquated and rigid definition of distance education to allow for innovative methods of instruction.
  • Encouraging competency-based education by creating a clear pathway for such programs to be eligible for federal student aid to help students attain a less costly degree based on their own learning schedule rather than time spent in a seat.
  • Expanding industry-led earn-and-learn programs that lead to high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers.
  • Supporting at-risk and minority students by reforming the TRIO programs to better evaluate the effectiveness of these programs and allowing all institutions to apply for funds that encourage evidence-based innovations, including pay for success initiatives, to promote postsecondary access and completion.
  • Encouraging minority-serving institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities to use grant funds for completion-focused initiatives such as pay for success, dual enrollment, and the development of career-centered programs.
  • Repealing unfair requirements that limit low-income students’ access to career-focused institutions and treating all institutions the same.

The Committee’s Higher Education Act reforms will Simplify and Improve Student Aid by:

  • Streamlining the student aid programs into one grant program, one loan program, and one work study program to ease confusion for students who are deciding the best options available to responsibly pay for their college education.
  • Providing access to a new ONE loan with reasonable loan limits and terms and conditions.
  • Reforming the work study program so that dollars go to institutions by undergraduate student need, and increasing a focus on workforce development by eliminating the arbitrary cap on students working at private-sector companies.
  • Disbursing grant and loan aid to students on a weekly or monthly basis, similar to a paycheck.
  • Paring down the maze of repayment options to one standard 10-year repayment plan and one income-based repayment plan to help borrowers better manage their debt after graduation.
  • Preventing fraud in the Pell Grant program by making sure students who have received a grant for at least three payment periods but have never completed any credit hours or credit hour equivalences do not receive additional Pell grants.
  • Making the FAFSA available on a mobile app and requiring both the app and the online form to be consumer-tested and clear and easy to use.

The Committee’s Higher Education Act reforms will Empower Students and Families to Make Informed Decisions by:

  • Improving information available to students and families with a consumer-tested College Dashboard website that would display key information about colleges and universities, including enrollment, completion, cost, and financial aid.
  • Providing aggregated information on the average debt of borrowers at graduation and the average salary of students who received federal financial aid both five and ten years after graduation for each program at an institution that participates in a student aid program under Title IV.
  • Streamlining transparency efforts at the federal level to reduce confusion for students and requiring federal agencies to coordinate more effectively, avoid duplication, and deliver reliable information to consumers in a way that is easy to understand.
  • Enhancing financial aid counseling to help all recipients of federal financial aid better understand their options to responsibly finance their higher education pursuits and the obligations they can expect after graduation.
  • Improving early awareness of federal financial aid options for students in high school.
  • Preventing the federal government from imposing a one-size-fits-all system that would arbitrarily rate our nation’s diverse colleges and universities, restrict consumer choice, confuse families, and potentially limit postsecondary options for low- and middle-income students.

The Committee’s Higher Education Act reforms will Ensure Strong Accountability and a Limited Federal Role by:

  • Strengthening the accreditation process to better focus on student achievement, allow for innovation, reduce cost and burden, and increase transparency.
  • Moving to a program level loan repayment rate that will help target federal student aid to programs where graduates have the ability to repay their student loans.
  • Reforming the return to Title IV (R2T4) process to reduce burden and increase institutional risk-sharing tied to student completion.
  • Reforming the Office of Federal Student Aid and directing the Chief Operating Officer to be more transparent about the performance of the federal student loan system.
  • Holding the Secretary of Education accountable by explicitly prohibiting her from exceeding her authority, defining any terms inconsistent with the law, or adding any requirements on institutions and states that are not explicitly authorized in the law.
  • Eliminating burdensome federal regulations that put Washington in the middle of issues that are the responsibility of institutions or states, limit student choice, and stifle innovative practices by institutions.
  • Repealing unnecessary reporting requirements that fail to provide useful information to students, families, and policymakers, and exacerbate rising college costs.
  • Improving the rulemaking process by outlining specific procedures the Secretary of Education must follow when issuing federal regulations under Title IV, including mandating minimal comment periods for stakeholders and providing a congressional notice and comment period.

 

 

Higher Education Authorization Act Changes Being Introduced For Committee Debate

All sectors of higher education needs to closely follow the US House Education and Workforce Committee as it gets presented the Republican members of the committee reauthorization bill.  

The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has issued the following update:

House GOP HEA Update

"The Republican Members of the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee are likely to introduce, as early as tomorrow, their version of a Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization bill. A markup on this legislation could also come as early as next week. Inside Higher Ed reported summary information on the bill. Specific policy provisions that we expect to be included in this legislation are:

  • Elimination or capping of Public Service Loan Forgiveness and other HEA loan forgiveness programs for teachers and income-drive repayment plans
  • Consolidation of existing loan programs with more restrictive loan limits, especially for graduate students
  • Expedited return of unearned Title IV aid when a student drops out 
  • Significant changes to accreditation agency operations and processes
  • Authorizes new funds for apprenticeships and other work experiences
  • Expands the Pell Grant program to cover short-term courses"
  •  

Higher Education, Student Aid and State and Local Tax Deduction Debated in DC

The Congressional committee action on the so called tax reform bills is causing lots of concern and resulting lobbying in the higher education community and in the state and local government tax community.  Important to watch as this gets debated.  The tough work now starts on committee and floor amendments over the coming weeks.  

The following was written by the American Association of State Colleges and University on 11.30.17:

Senate GOP Tax Proposal

"On November 16, the Senate Finance Committee passed the Senate Republicans' version of tax cut legislation by a vote of 14—12 and released the bill's score. On Tuesday, the Senate Budget Committee reported out the tax bill, and it is currently being considered by the full Senate. As a reminder, the bill proposes to, among other things: 

  • Eliminate the ability to deduct state and local taxes for individual taxpayers, in contrast to the House's partial preservation of this tax deduction. AASCU has sent out action alerts on this issue and will continue to do so when necessary.
  • Increase the standard deduction to $24,000 from $12,700 for joint filers (and surviving spouses); to $12,000 from $6,350 for individual filers; and to $18,000 from $9,350 for heads of households. The House bill includes the same provisions. Such a change could result in less charitable giving, including giving to institutions of higher education, due to a lack of incentive to itemize deductions.
  • Unlike the House bill, the Senate proposal would not consolidate the American Opportunity Tax Credit, Hope Scholarship Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit into one education tax credit nor would it repeal the exclusion of income resulting from the discharge of student debt in cases of death or total disability, the deduction for interest paid on student loans, the deduction for tuition and related expenses, the exclusion of interest from savings bonds used to pay education expenses, the exclusion of tuition reductions or the exclusion of employer-provided education assistance.

  • FAFSA and FSA Updates

    The past two weeks have produced several newsworthy items with respect to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Office of Federal Student Aid's (FSA) role in supporting student aid programs and servicing Federal student loans. First, FSA Chief Operating Officer (COO) Dr. Wayne Johnson announced a Next Generation Financial Services Environment blueprint for his organization. The blueprint is designed to modernize the technological and operational aspects of FSA that support Federal student aid programs. The blueprint calls for consolidating different ED-operated student aid websites, piloting the ability of students to access Pell and loan funds above tuition and fees through an ED provided financial structure (as opposed to existing debit card arrangements with colleges and universities) and improving Federal student loan servicing. As part of this announcement, ED also unveiled a new mobile FAFSA application that would be available in the spring. 

    Coupled with these Administration announcements, the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on the need to simplify the FAFSA. As part of this hearing, HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced that he has been working on new legislation to simplify the FAFSA down to 15 to 25 questions. Such a proposal would be in contrast to earlier calls by Alexander to shrink the FAFSA down to 2 questions. In addition, Alexander and witnesses discussed the idea of creating an application for the Pell Grant, which would only be a few questions, separate from other types of aid."

State Public Administration: Innovations, Government Efficiency and Coaching State Employees

What Governors are doing across America to change how their governments serve their citizens and do so in financially and operationally rational and effective manner is amazing and innovative. This Governor is trying many, many different innovations and creating new best practices for public administrators at the state and local level to review, evaluate and maybe implement.  Again, public administration and public policy happens more frequently at the state and local levels--not at the federal level.  This article is another example of the innovative and creative leadership at the state level by Governors and state public administrators.  The media likes to cover whatever is the hot story of the day in Washington D.C., when they need to spend time also on what is happening at the state level to serve citizens and taxpayers.  There are some great stories out there that Americans could learn from and and see positive, effective, efficient, creative governing--instead of partisan bickering and policy gridlock.  

 

 

Can Other States Tap Tennessee’s Secret Sauce for Government Efficiency?

Once seen as a laggard in public administration, the state is now a leader.

BY JOHN BUNTIN | NOVEMBER 2017, Governing Magazine Online.

"Derek Young is no stranger to the C-suite. As he waits for a client in his 10th-floor corner office in downtown Nashville, he talks about his passion for culture change. One of the services he offers companies is as a motivational speaker and executive coach who charges “anywhere from one to six thousand dollars” a pop.

This morning, Young is meeting with Marcus Dodson, who manages IT operations for a large financial institution. When he arrives, Dodson updates Young on the project he is currently working on. He’s been trying to get everyone in his 250-person organization up to speed on Microsoft Excel. But the project isn’t going well. Dodson wasn’t as prepared as he had wanted to be, and as a result, the first round of reviews from participants let him know that. But then, Dodson worked to improve his presentation, and his subsequent reviews were dramatically better.

Having a coach help an executive work through challenges is common in corporate America. But Dodson doesn’t work in the private sector. He works for the state. He’s responsible for infrastructure and security at the Tennessee Department of Treasury. He’s receiving coaching through an innovative leadership development program known as LEAD Tennessee.

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Seven years ago, Tennessee was seen as a laggard in the field of public administration. Today, it’s a leader. Gov. Bill Haslam has made improving the operations of the state government a major focus of his administration. LEAD Tennessee and other innovative programs, as well as an overall willingness to invest in training, have been attracting attention from other state governments.

In 2012, the Haslam administration took on civil service reform, overhauling the state’s antiquated hiring and promotions practices and replacing them with a pay-for-performance system. It also became the first state to appoint a so-called chief learning officer as part of a broader effort to offer new employees training opportunities to learn on the job. A year later, Haslam appointed an IBM executive, Greg Adams, to serve as the state’s first-ever chief operating officer. Adams has taken the governor’s desire to emphasize “customer-focused government” and translated it into a well-organized operating system, where heads of cabinet departments, known as commissioners, meet monthly to discuss operations and pursue opportunities for collaboration. Sub-cabinet working groups also meet regularly to address immediate problems, such as access to health care or capital for small businesses in rural areas. The state says it has eliminated more than half a billion dollars in recurring expenses as a result of its focus on better performance.

Tennessee offers a compelling example of what conservative government can deliver. With its AAA bond rating and well-funded public pension plans, low unemployment rate, rising educational achievement and an innovative program that offers two years of free community college, Republicans see Tennessee as a national model of good governance. “All our constitutionally elected officers are Republicans,” says state Sen. Jack Johnson, a co-author of the Haslam administration’s breakthrough civil service reform act. “We are a Republican-dominated state, and that plays a big role in why we are succeeding as a state.”

To be sure, not everyone is ready to applaud the Haslam administration’s reform efforts or credit it with big changes. Randy Stamps, who heads the Tennessee State Employees Association, sees a commitment to cost cutting and outsourcing that belies many of the claims made about investing in people. “They’ve trimmed down state government,” Stamps says. “When they’ve had trouble managing, their first reaction is not to try to manage it better, but to outsource it.”

Others note that it was Haslam’s predecessor, Democrat Phil Bredesen, who moved the state Medicaid program, TennCare, to managed care, initiated sweeping education reform and pushed more than 1,600 state employees to seek early retirement. Many of Haslam’s achievements have built on these earlier initiatives. However, Haslam’s legacy of improving the operations of state government is entirely his own. Those improvements, and the systems and the philosophy that undergird them, have made Tennessee a model for other states, says Leslie Scott, executive director of the National Association of State Personnel Executives. “Tennessee is the state that our other member states look to for innovation.”

 

In 2010, Haslam was elected governor of Tennessee. Like his predecessor, Haslam brought both business and political skills to the governor’s office. His previous job had been as mayor of Knoxville. Before that, he had been serving as president of the Pilot Corporation, which operates a chain of truck stops started by his father that is one of the largest private businesses in the country. (Haslam’s personal stake in the family business makes him one of the wealthiest elected officials in the country. Forbes currently pegs his personal net worth at $2.5 billion.)

As mayor of Knoxville, Haslam operated in a system with nonpartisan elections. “I could’ve told you who the Republicans and Democrats were, but our votes didn’t break down that way,” he says today. As governor, though, political affiliation matters. Haslam became the first Republican governor with Republican majorities -- supermajorities at that -- in both chambers since Reconstruction. That put him in a position to make big legislative changes if he could maintain the support of Republicans in the legislature. If he lost that support, his agenda would be at risk. In Tennessee, a simple majority of lawmakers can override a governor’s veto.

Gov. Bill Halsam has made improving the operations of the state government a major focus of his administration. (AP)

When he took over the reins of power, Haslam chose his moves carefully. His first focus was on education, in part because he believed that improving it was the best way to raise incomes. But he also saw there was momentum there. Under his predecessor, Tennessee had enacted a series of reforms that made it one of two states to receive Race to the Top funding for education reforms. Education would become the defining feature of Haslam’s two terms as governor. He brought in a former Teach for America executive to run the Department of Education. He also championed legislation that created a state school district with the power to take over failing schools. In 2014, the legislature passed Haslam’s Tennessee Promise Scholarship Act, which gave high school graduates access to two years of free community or technical college.

While education was the high-profile agenda, Haslam was also determined to improve the way state government worked. In moving from Knoxville to the state Capitol in Nashville, Haslam realized he faced big new management challenges. State government was a $37-billion-a-year enterprise that employed over 40,000 workers. It was, Haslam says, “like going from Double-A baseball to the major leagues. It’s the same game, but it was a lot bigger and faster.”

To get a handle on how state government was working, he had the commissioners of his 23 departments conduct top-to-bottom reviews, looking for issues that stood in the way of efficient operations. One of the people involved in the review was Rebecca Hunter, the state’s new human resources commissioner. At the end of the process, Hunter says, “every single cabinet member came back and said, ‘We have to do something about the antiquated employment practices if we’re going to move forward.’”

The Haslam administration’s response was the Tennessee Excellence, Accountability and Management Act. Passed in 2012, the TEAM Act swept away the old civil service system, in which seniority was the most important qualification for hiring and retention. Under TEAM, agencies were given the leeway to do their own hiring and more easily discipline or even terminate existing employees, and it changed the way the state evaluated its workforce. The TEAM Act also eliminated the old system of occasional across-the-board raises, replacing it with a pay-for-performance system whereby employees were rated on a scale from “unacceptable” to “outstanding.” 

The TEAM Act was an important step in the Haslam administration’s push to restructure operations. And therein lay a problem for Haslam. As governor, he had so many responsibilities, such as dealing with legislation, recruiting companies to come to Tennessee and dealing with the federal government. “I spend a lot of time in Washington arguing about what’s going to happen to Medicaid,” says Haslam. “I don’t spend nearly as much time [on operations] as I would if I was a CEO running the business.”

So he looked for an operational solution. In the summer of 2013, he created the new position of state COO and hired Adams. Haslam then instructed his cabinet members to run operational issues past Adams rather than bringing them to him.

In the HR department, which was not centralized, Hunter followed a similar strategy. Instead of being the department that handled problems, she worked on a plan so that departments would call her before they made decisions about structural or personnel changes. The idea was to help them make sound decisions rather than call her for help “because it didn’t work as well as they had hoped it would.”

Adams also brought discipline to the state’s push for customer-focused government. One of the Haslam administration’s first initiatives had been to set up just such an office. The underlying idea was to get government to stop thinking like a monopoly and to start seeing residents as customers. “Nobody has to live in Tennessee,” Haslam says. “You can say, ‘I can move my business, I can move my family, to Kentucky or Georgia or Utah.’”

As part of its reform efforts, Tennessee appointed the first-ever state chief learning officer, Trish Holliday, as well as its first chief operating officer, Greg Adams. (Kristina Krug)

To emphasize the importance of the new focus, Adams began holding monthly customer-focused government cabinet meetings that brought commissioners together to discuss operational issues. Greg Gonzales, the state’s top bank regulator, says the cabinet meetings “have taken coordination to a whole new level.”

As a case in point, Gonzales cites the recent development of a comprehensive state disaster recovery plan. Initially, he says, the plan envisioned almost no role for his department. However, when he talked with the head of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, the two men realized that ensuring access to cash would be critical to a successful emergency response. The result was that last year Gonzales’ department created and ran the first disaster recovery exercise for financial institutions in the state’s history. This year, it expanded the exercise to consider a cyberattack and include federal partners and over 100 financial institutions throughout Tennessee. “That’s the kind of coordination and pulling departments together that I think has been pretty unique,” says Gonzales. “We’ve never done anything like this in state government -- at least in my 31 years.”

 

In his book Good to Great, management consultant Jim Collins writes about something he calls “the flywheel effect.” It’s a metaphor he uses to describe the tremendous power that exists in the continued improvement and delivery of results. It’s something Adams thinks is happening now in Tennessee. The governor sets his priorities. Departments then enumerate operational goals and strategic initiatives that are tracked by metrics. Take tourism. One operational goal of the Department of Tourist Development is to increase tourist revenue from $19 billion to $20 billion over the course of the year. The strategic initiative is to do it by attracting more European tourists. These goals and initiatives can then be written into individual employees’ performance plans. By tying pay to performance, the TEAM Act encourages employees to excel in meeting these goals.

How to help them excel? In the pre-TEAM Act days, says Chief Learning Officer Trish Holliday, “there was this idea that the organization was responsible for the employee’s learning.” Holliday rejects that perspective. “To me, the organization is not responsible for the employee’s learning,” she says. Her job as CLO is to give departments customized, research-based curricula for learning that can be utilized by those motivated to move ahead.

The numbers suggest that this approach is working. Since 2013, participation in leadership training and development among the state’s 7,500 managers has more than doubled, rising from 314 in 2013 to 715 in 2017. The cumulative result over this five-year period is that the state HR department has trained 2,476 leaders in state government. Not only is that a desirable outcome, says Hunter, the HR commissioner, but it also has implications for the state’s ability to recruit high-performing employees to the state workforce. According to Hunter, research shows that the benefit new workers value most is “training and development.”

Adams believes the state’s restructured management systems and energized philosophy have begun to deliver big results. One measure he points to is the $500 million in recurring costs that the state has identified and eliminated since 2012. Groups such as the Tennessee State Employees Union are skeptical of the claims. They note that the biggest savings come from two areas -- TennCare, and corrections and parole. The $164 million savings from TennCare reflect the state’s ability to wring savings from its managed care programs. It’s an impressive achievement but, given the size of the program, not an altogether surprising one.

The other big reduction in costs is more surprising. The state says it has identified $88 million in lower spending in corrections and parole since 2012. Some of those savings have come through creative deals, including privatization arrangements whereby county jails contract with private prison providers to house state prisoners. That troubles people like Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “At the end of the day, private prison corporations answer to their shareholders,” she says. “They are not interested in saving taxpayers money.”

Union officials and even some lawmakers have also criticized the state for its approach to outsourcing. Since 2015, the state has moved ahead with ambitious plans to outsource the management and operations of state office buildings to a Chicago-based company in which Haslam reportedly had an investment. (The governor moved his assets into a blind trust in 2011.) More recent efforts to expand that push to the state’s college and university campuses led to concerns from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers about its impact on the salaries and benefits of maintenance workers.

But even critics acknowledge that overall the new operating system has yielded at least some good results. Internal promotions, for example, have risen sharply from 2,500 in 2013-2014 to 3,900 in 2016-2017. Salaries have risen significantly, too, from an average of $39,577 in 2012 to $47,267 in 2017. “We appreciate those [pay raises],” says Stamps of the state employees association. Moreover, for the 700-plus managers who have taken advantage of the state’s leadership programs -- people such as Dodson from the state Treasury Department -- the new regime has been liberating. “I grew up in Southern Kentucky, a farm guy,” Dodson says. “I get into IT, something that I love, and now I have this passion of helping people to develop and get to their personal goals [through] education and training. I have the best of both worlds.”

That’s exactly the attitude that Haslam wants to hear. “At the end of the day,” he says, “the team with the best players wins.” "

CORRECTION: A previous version of this listed Tennessee's Department of Tourist Development as the Department of Economic Development.

State Government Innovations: A Secretary of Government Operations

This is an interesting new development in state government management--a director of state operations, an equal to the position int ehe private sector of Chief Operating Officer (COO).  In California it is called Secretary of Government Operations--this position was first created in 2013.  It has been functioning for four years. Considering that California is 8th largest economy in the world, innovations in that state are important to observe, benchmark and see if it can be a best practice to utilize in other states.  In public administration we need to be better at tracking best practices in the public square--in the state and local levels of government especially.  As the saying goes, real government innovations happens at this state and local levels--not at the federal level.  Not always but usually.  This innovation  is worth watching.

 

Marble Batjer:

Secretary of Government Operations, California

"Marybel Batjer knows how to make big moves quickly. In just five weeks in 2013, she went from being vice president of Caesars Entertainment Corporation in Las Vegas to becoming California’s first-ever secretary of the Government Operations Agency (CalGovOps). As soon as she arrived, she was given a mandate by Gov. Jerry Brown to begin a prompt overhaul in how the nation’s largest state government operates. But Batjer, who at age 62 has advised two other governors and been a Pentagon insider, knows how to move deliberately as well -- she has run the professional equivalent of a marathon or two already in her career. “You have to set yourself in a pace or cadence where you’re not trying to boil the ocean,” she says. “You’re not trying to learn the depth of everything -- but you’ve got to get on top of everything quickly.” 

In her four years heading up CalGovOps, she’s tackled California’s slow-moving bureaucracy head-on by shaking up the state’s hiring practices and project management. She is redesigning a personnel system she says has been “stuck in the last century,” with individual hires taking as much as a year and employees working in walled cubicles with outdated computers. That’s completely unappealing, she says, to a generation raised online. “People who are used to everything at the tip of their thumbs on their smartphones, they walk into a state office building and they’re taken back 30 years,” Batjer says. 

One way Batjer has changed the hiring process is by revamping civil service exams. More than 200 of these are now online in California, and Batjer wants to simplify things even more by consolidating exams for similar jobs offered by different state departments. She’s pushing to eliminate tests altogether for some licensed professionals, such as lawyers and doctors. And once candidates are hired, she is making sure their work environment is more responsive to the expectations of a younger generation. She has modernized employee orientation and made leadership training mandatory for supervisors.

But perhaps the biggest change under Batjer has been in the state’s IT department, where projects have historically run over time and over budget. To combat that, CalGovOps worked with the tech advisory group Code for America to introduce a new system that launches projects in stages. Known as agile project management, the system requires departments to hit specific benchmarks prior to moving ahead, such as successfully testing a procedure before applying it statewide. It sounds obvious, but for California, it is something new. The idea, says Batjer, is to “fail fast,” so that departments can find out in a matter of weeks -- rather than years -- if an idea needs to be reworked. The new approach is being tested on the state’s 20-year-old child welfare case management system, in which the traditional long-term contracting model is being dumped in favor of multiple contracts with vendors on shorter deadlines. This change has the eyes of the tech world and has made California the “epicenter of digital government services,” according to management expert Aaron Pava.

Recently, Batjer was preparing for a speech about agile management and asked her team what stood out to them during the transition. Surprisingly, it wasn’t any particular substantive change. It was the revolution in how decisions were made. “‘You made a decision. You said “yes,” and you said “yes” fast,’” Batjer remembers them telling her. “It’s a reminder that we do really cool things in government -- we just have to give people the ability to go do it.” "

 -- By Liz Farmer, Governing Magazine (online).  11.30.17

 

A Governance Nudge: Board Self Evaluation

In the book "What College Trustees Need To Know", by George J. Matthews, Norman R. Smith and Bryan E. Carlson 2013, iUniverse Publisher, they write:  "In the end, the success stories will be at those institutions where Presidents and their Boards believe in each other, and symbiotically work together with the genuine desire for each other's success."  That is completely on point and accurate.  

What is crucial to the symbiotic working relationship is the annual board self evaluation.  This is not done at all institutions, however it is crucial to institution success and effective board governance. 

Each year universities and colleges normally perform an evaluation of the president.  Sometimes it is more comprehensive and sometimes it is more informal.  The campus communities are always most attentive to what the board says in these presidential evaluations--and always debating what is not said in the evaluation.  In any case the presidential evaluation is very effective and is being done and thought to be crucial to institutional success.

It is often said that everyone on a campus is evaluated by a supervisor or a constituency, except the board of trustees.  

Every board should find an effective self evaluation tool and process.  It should fit the culture of the institution and the board.  The board should seek input from the president on content of the evaluation and about how to get campus input into the board self evaluation process.  

The self evaluation needs to be about how the board works together as a group and how individual board members perform their duties and how they work with other board members.

The board self evaluation should include questions such as:

    Do we effectively communicate and work with the president and her/his team?  Are our communications methods with the president, the campus community and institutional constituents (alumni, donors, etc.) effective?  Are we micromanaging?  Do we focus on policy and not on administrative operations?  Are we at cross purposeless at any time with our institutional administration and faculty?  Are we asking challenging questions that are based on our understanding of our institutions culture, challenges and threats?   What could we do better?  What could we change?  Are all the board members individually adding value to the board and the institutions  and are we doing the same as a board, as a group.  There a many, many more questions and concepts to add to each board self evaluation.  Many will be based on the history, culture and challenges/threats facing the institution.

There should be a self evaluation process for each individual board member to complete based on their individual performance as a board members.  Board members should evaluate their performance:  Are you adding value to the board and the institution?  Have you at any time been inappropriately "disruptive" and negative in performing your board duties?  Have been effective at communicating with your fellow board members and with the President?  Have you inappropriately attempted to micromanage by communicating with administrators, academics and athletic leadership, etc., without discussing your questions and issues with the board chair and the president prior to any contact with this type of leadership?  Have you in addition to attending board meetings have you participated in alumni, athletic, academic, donor and community events and have you coordinated your participation thru the presidents office?  Are you a financial donor to your institution? There are obviously lots and lots of the questions to ask and processes to evaluate for individual board members.

Some questions on the overall evaluation process are how do you get campus and campus constituency input into the process and the outcomes of the evaluation?  Do individual board members see their colleagues self evaluations?  Do they discuss them at a board meeting (open or closed)?  Lots more here also to include and to discuss. 

What is important is to begin the process of designing and implementing a board self evaluation tool and process.  Board effectiveness and institutional success depends on you doing a board self evaluation.  Start it now.  We in higher education are facing tremendous challenges in the next several years.  Many believe that we are losing the faith and support of federal and state policy makers, institutional donors and taxpayers.  Board self evaluation can only help the institution as it works its way thru the next several challenging years. 

 

 

 

University Graduate Rates

This post is from a blog written by Lou Glazer, the head of the organization called Michigan's Future Inc..Lou Glazer and I have been colleagues over the years in state government. 

In this blog Lou writes:  

"And although a college education is the great equalizer in the American economy, too often the definition of what constitutes whether a student is “college material” is fraught with class considerations. According to Paul Tough , who has written extensively and brilliantly about student success, only one-quarter of college freshmen from the lower half of the economic scale will go on to finish a degree. That statistic for children of parents in the top economic quartile? Approximately 90 percent."

This blog is making the point that colleges and universities must get better, much better, at making sure that when they recruit a high school student to come to their institution that they are making a commitment to that student (and their families) that the institution will do everything to make sure the student graduates with a degree.  This includes not only standard retention programs for academic performance but programs that help students adjust to their new life.  This is especially true for first gen students--they need someone who they can talk to about issues that come on a campus that no one in their family can address because they never have been part of a campus community.

This a good read.

 

 

 http://www.michiganfuture.org/09/2017/boosting-graduation-rates-a-moral-imperative-for-michigan-universities/

Higher Education Mergers, Acquisitions and Closures

This week Marshall  Law School and University of Illinois Law School announce a merger. Valparaiso Law School announced that it was closing. Last week we read about other mergers and some closure speculations. Seems obvious now that more and more of this will happen as the higher education market place shrinks and tries to re-position itself in this "new" economy.  

Might be interesting to see what public policy "nudges" the federal and state governments can put in place to encourage more re-arrangements and re-organizations in higher education.  Seems the more we can do to make universities and colleges more financially secure, fiscally responsible and to increase degree completion percentages the better off we would all be.  

Michigan has 13 public four year universities (plus Flint and Dearborn UM campuses), 29 community colleges and many, many non profit and for profit colleges and universities.  They are all trying their best to serve the citizens of this state and to be innovative and financially responsible.  Most of Michigan's four year public universities have constitutional protections to protect their independence and limit legislative/executive branch interference.  Maybe a few "nudges" and/or incentives might encourage some innovations on how we can more effectively the cost of higher education and increase opportunity.  Might show us some ideas to increase success for students and get more students enrolled and completing a degree.  

What are some possible "nudges" that might assist in this effort?  

What changes can we make in higher education public policy without having to amend the state constitution or spend years and years in court?

What can we do to increase board member effectiveness and governance quality?

What are some of the best practices in other states that we in Michigan (and other states) might learn from that have worked in these other states?

More later on some of these questions.

NLRB "Punts" On Collegiate Football Union. #highered. #edpolicy

Now lets see where this goes:  to state legislatures or to the judiciary?

Michigan has already pass a law that prohibits collegiate athletes from joining a union.

We have not heard the last of this.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/17/national-labor-relations-board-declines-assert-role-northwestern-football-union?utm_content=bufferffc78&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=IHEbuffer

SO MUCH FOR STAYING IN SESSION TILL ROAD ISSUE RESOLVED

Remember all the talk about in Lansing about staying in legislative session until the road tax solution is resolved--well that is long forgotten in Lansing.  The legislature has left for the summer or until called back by their leadership. 

Seems like the public is starting to lose patience with this practice of not resolving issues like this one.  All the polls say they want the legislature to work together to get solutions.  The legislature views these long legislative breaks (two, four and six week breaks) as a chance to get back to their districts and visit with voters to take their pulse.  Voters seem to view them as little more than "vacations" or "work avoidance".  One west Michigan voter told me she was most steamed about all these break times and especially two weeks for deer season.  She said: " Who gets two weeks for deer season?"  Don't know,  but this issue of legislative breaks and legislative gridlock is getting to be more and more of a concern to voters.  Somewhere in between the two extreme views is the truth, but it does not help when we have an issue like road repair and road revenue/tax that does not seem to get completed or takes toooooo long.  The problem here is that everyday the public are driving on deteriorating roads and feeling their cars get banged around on their way to work, to play, to worship--everyday, everywhere.  

So hopefully legislators will spend time during this potential six week break to hold town forums with real voters and not just special interests, where they can explain what is going on and what makes this issue so difficult to resolve.  The the voters back home can respond to that information and tell these lawmakers what they think.  The dialog is important and useful.  All sides need to use this time wisely and effectively if we are going to resolve this road funding issue.

Bridge Magazine has a good article on the road issue and the negotiations :

http://bridgemi.com/2015/07/state-roads-legislation-getting-bumpier-than-the-roads-that-need-fixing/

 

 

Community Colleges Offering 4 Year Degrees

 

This past week we saw in Michigan another university go above the legislatively imposed tuition cap.  It gave up a million dollars in state aid for eight or ten times as much gained from a tuition increase.  Lots of hand wringing by policy makers about what to do with this development and the hand wringing will get worse as more universities make this choice.

At the same time Michigan we have a legislator re-introducing legislation to allow community colleges to offer some four year degrees that have up to now been the exclusive of four year universities.  

Over all of this of course is the issue of the cost of getting a two year and/or a four degree.  The cost to the student is getting higher and higher and leaving students with more and more student loan debt.

The debate is important about tuition costs and student debt.  The debate is important about loss of state aid to universities and the cost of offering a university curriculum, student services and construction of new campus buildings.  The debate is important about what is the scope of education that should be provided at a community college and should community college tuition be free..

Maybe the discussion between the legislators and community college and university presidents should really be between college and university trustees who approve these tuition hikes, who approve the expanding programs, who approve new buildings, etc., etc.. Maybe they should be asked why and what they are doing?  They are the policy makers in higher education and they approve all policies and procedures.

Maybe we need a discussion at a statewide level about higher education governance and cost.

Bridge magazine has an excellent overview of this issue in its recent edition.  http://bridgemi.com/2015/07/turf-war-community-colleges-want-to-offer-more-4-year-degrees/

 

The More People Voting in the Public Square the Better, Says SOS. Yup Indeed.

Johnson: The Time Has Come For No-Reason Absentee Voting Michigan (from Gongwer News Service. 6.16.15)

The state has spent the last few years cleaning up its elections process and is ready to add no-reason absentee voting to the system, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson told the House Elections Committee on Wednesday.

"I believe Michigan is ready to offer this service to accommodate the busy schedule of hard working people," Ms. Johnson said. "Michigan has led the nation in modernizing processes and systems. ... Because of all the work we have done, the time is right for secure no-reason absentee voting."

*

She urged committee members to support HB 4724 to bring the state in line with 27 other states that offer no-reason absentee voting, but "with Michigan's stamp of security."

The bill, introduced by Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R-Alto), chair of the committee, would retain the traditional reasons allowing absentee voting. It would also allow a person to go to the local clerk to apply for a no-reason absentee ballot.

At the time the person is applying, he or she would have to follow the same rules as when receiving ballots on Election Day. Currently, the bill requires the person to show identification, but the committee discussed adding the current affidavit process.

The bill, which would take effect January 1, 2016, would also prohibit campaigning - beginning 45 days before the election - if an office was open and receiving applications for no-reason absentee ballots.

Ms. Johnson said no-reason absentee voting is an option the people want.

The committee did not vote on the bill, although there was no opposition presented. Ms. Lyons said she is giving the committee time to study the bill.

"It's a big change," she said.

Ms. Lyons said the issue has been politicized, but she said it's important to take partisanship out of elections as much as possible.

"Any time you are talking about changing how you do elections, I believe there is certainly a political component to it because that is the job of the parties," she said. "But I don't work for the party, I work for the people and we really need to look at what we can do to make sure our elections are fair, they're secure and helping ensure we have as much voter participation as possible."

Mary Hollinrake, the Kent County Clerk, said if the state approves a ban on straight ticket voting, then no-reason absentee voting would be crucial in preventing long lines at polling places.

Ms. Lyons said she is very interested in looking at an elimination of straight ticket voting.

"We don't vote for parties, we vote for people," she said.

Rep. Gretchen Driskell (D-Saline), minority vice chair of the committee, expressed some concern that a person voting no-reason absentee would be required to continuously apply in person to get a ballot, even after the state has validated his or her identity.

Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) said those opposing no-reason absentee voting often point to it as an avenue to increased fraud in elections. He said those most likely to vote absentee for no reason are the ones who don't want to "fib even a little bit" in voting absentee under current law.

"What we're doing here today, what we're talking about doing, isn't going to make life easier for the fraudsters," he said.

Chris Thomas, the director of elections for the Department of State, said there is no apparent increase in fraud in other states after the enactment of no-reason absentee voting.

Ms. Lyons said she is comfortable with hearing opposition to the bill, but wants to hear reasons. She said if someone says there will be an increase in fraud, she wants to hear how.

"No-reason opposition is not good enough. No-reason absentee, if it is secure, is good," she said.

Criminal Justice Reform: Urgent. Now. 

among the many things the state legislature should address Is this issue.  The Governor's recommendations are encouraging if the legislature will stay focused and stay at work-in Lansing and working five days a week on public policy proposals and debates.  Paid to be full time.  Voters might start looking more seriously at a part time legislature. 

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/05/18/governor-snyder-special-message-criminal-justice-reform/27537747/

Judicial and Correction System Re-Rhink and Reform

The United States has 5% of world's population, but our prison's house 25% of the world's prisoners.  This country has 50% of the world's lawyers.  

This information comes from a column today by Fared Zacharia and a new book by Conrad Black.  This year we have as a nation begun to think about our justice and corrections systems as we watched riots in Ferguson and in Baltimore.  American's have begun to think about how did so many of our young men in inner cities wide up in our judicial system and eventually in our prisons.  

One issue we will discuss in this blog will be what needs to be fixed so we can reduce our prison population but also restore faith in our nation's legal system.  How can we make our cities safe and have effective justice for all our citizens.  

Hello Michigan. Good Bye NH and IA

This development could be good news for Michigan's political leaders and parties.  Also good news for Michigan's economy - more media advertising spending in Michigan.  Might be good for Governor Snyder's presidential campaign plans. 

Politico Magazine: 

" Some party operatives say that 2016 could be the first race in the modern era in which a candidate does not need to win Iowa or New Hampshire to prevail." http://wapo.st/1z8uIeV