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Columbus
Dispatch...
Charter college idea
has appeal
No state has made switch, but Ohio higher-education leaders want less
red tape
Sunday, March 6, 2011
By Encarnacion Pyle
Many Ohio college leaders are excited that their schools could gain
more independence and freedom from red tape.
But whether they try to become charter universities - an idea being
floated by Gov. John Kasich and incoming Chancellor Jim Petro - will
depend on the tradeoffs. Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee
said he has been pushing for deregulation since the 1990s, but he did
not commit to whether the school would seek to become a charter.
Charter colleges often receive some relief from regulatory burdens in
exchange for less money from the state, an attractive option for Ohio
leaders facing a deficit of as much as $8 billion in the coming
two-year budget.
Petro, who first raised the idea of creating charter universities in
2005, doesn’t know yet what such a school would be like or what it
would take to create one. But the former state auditor and attorney
general is certain something needs to done so that Ohio’s state schools
can cut costs and spend their money more efficiently.
“If we free our schools from these constraints, we can build the
reputation of our system, increase access to Ohioans and begin to draw
the best and brightest students from across the country,” Petro said
last week.
Ohio college leaders list a variety of areas where they want more
freedom: handling construction projects without hiring multiple prime
vendors, allowing them to choose high-quality vendors who aren’t
necessarily the lowest bidders, insuring themselves for workers
compensation, and being allowed to create revenue-generating
operations, to name a few.
Whenever the economy drops, large public universities nationwide call
for more autonomy.
Virginia was among the first states to consider allowing charter
universities. Several others, including Oregon, Louisiana and
Wisconsin, whose governor unveiled a proposal last week to split the
University of Wisconsin at Madison from the rest of the university
system, have raised the possibility.
Virginia’s efforts started in 2004, when the College of William &
Mary, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech wanted to act more like
private businesses. They said they would be willing to take 10 percent
less state funding in exchange for more freedom.
The charter idea died quickly, but the state schools underwent a huge
restructuring a year later. Virginia now has a three-tiered system, in
which the colleges have varying levels of freedom in construction
projects, financing, personnel matters, purchasing and more.
Although some rules have been relaxed, the schools have to meet other
mandates, such as developing a six-year financial plan, improving
student achievement and making college affordable to Virginia
residents, said James Alessio, Virginia’s director of higher-education
restructuring.
Virginia colleges don’t lose money if they miss performance standards,
but the state offers incentives, such as letting them keep interest
earnings on tuition and use leftover revenue any way they want, Alessio
said. In fiscal year 2007, Virginia’s 15 four-year and 24 two-year
public colleges earned $59million in incentives. That figure dropped to
$29.7million for fiscal 2009, driven by the poor economy and a huge
drop in interest earnings.
University of Virginia officials said they saved nearly $6 million in
construction costs for 2008-9 because of the changes and that every
project has come in on time or ahead of schedule and under budget.
The school also is doing better long-term planning, maximizing
efficiencies and improving recruitment and retention, spokeswoman Carol
Wood said.
“Had the economy not been so dismal, it would have allowed us to
improve compensation of faculty and staff,” she said.
From 2007 to 2010, the average annual tuition increase for in-state,
undergraduate students in Virginia was 5.9 percent, well below the
double-digit increases in the three years before the restructuring.
Higher-education experts say the new system hasn’t given Virginia
schools the tuition flexibility that they had wanted. This year,
tuition went up an average of 13.1 percent, but there have been
ramifications. Gov. Bob McDonnell wants to cut funding to Virginia
Commonwealth University by $17 million in the upcoming budget because
the school raised tuition 24 percent.
There are legitimate reasons for colleges to push for autonomy, said
Aims C. McGuinness, senior associate with the Colorado-based National
Center for Higher Education Management Systems. But he doesn’t know
whether Ohio really needs to create charter universities.
Similar to Virginia, Ohio already has specific goals to ensure that its
schools are an economic engine for the state, he said. And the state
has a new funding model that pays colleges based on meeting benchmarks
rather than on enrollment.
The new chancellor could push the schools to share more services and
produce other cuts, McGuinness said. But the state should be careful
about creating a fragmented system that grants special status to select
universities or pits schools against one another, he said.
Several Ohio college leaders said they are optimistic.
“Charters are one way of the universities getting additional
flexibility in order to maintain quality and keep their students,” said
Bruce E. Johnson, president of the Inter-University Council of Ohio, an
advocacy group for the state’s public, four-year schools.
The University of Cincinnati is so interested in the charter idea that
the faculty senate has created a committee to explore the issue,
university President Gregory Williams said.
By seeking more autonomy and deregulation, the universities can be more
agile in the face of challenges and do a better job of serving the
state, Miami University President David C. Hodge said.
It’s an idea whose time has come, said Gee, the Ohio State president.
“We have to make reforms, and the reinvention starts with us,” he said.
“It’s just a matter of figuring out how we make this work.”
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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