Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20141027 :

CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings October 27, 2014

Involved helping to craft the grand constitution which we put out to the community over six months ago and the response was overwhelming 500 institutions put in applications for innovative practices that they wanted to experiment with to try to improve access and outcomes and drive down cost and the fact that 500 institutions are responding so yes we have to do our part, too. So at the state level i think that our work is to help identify some of the things we are learning from the first in the world grantees and scale them up so they can become more common state practice. In the same vein, one of the areas in which the states and federal government and the k12 system have a common interest is in the teacher preparation. In a particular area of overlap working with the states now to create a set of regulations that will put more tools in the hands of the states to be be a lot of work with institutions to raise the level of the teachers which we think is a key leverage not just in the Higher Education world but in the k12 world if we are going to seek to bring High School Graduates ready to do collegelevel work. So there are tools and innovations around empowering the states with policy regulation. Ralph and david, to the point of that connection in the postsecondary system and the k12 system we point out in a report the report that one of the areas of cost that seems insurmountable is the fact as david mentioned so many students are showing up on the campus and they are not ready for the collegelevel work which means they have to take three mediation cases and so there is the cost of the student increasing the student debt and the costs to Society Since we are basically teaching the same content twice. Are there ways that your institutions can help tackle that issue which is a k12 issue but help ensure that by the time they get to the door they are ready for success at the collegelevel . Absolutely. We work on a regular basis for the local School District to provide the collegelevel programs in particular for students that are looking to move on to Postsecondary Education. Most particularly, there is as i mentioned. We have an articulation transfer with Community Colleges and state colleges. One of the great advantages of the state in florida is we have a wellestablished two plus two articulation. We have a common core numbering system that i noticed in your report as being an essential mechanism i think for streamlining passage for the Community Colleges and universities. We are actually working to words jointly admitting the students to the university as they are admitted to the partner so they receive a joint letter but these are the conditions on the rate to enter the university. We recognize the tuition for students about 3,000 as compared to what we think is a very reasonable 6500 iindia diversity system. But again, that is only part of the story because the full customer attend is closing in on 20,000 we realize that is a strain on the limited income families. Before i comment, let me just say i think its important to appreciate the broad context of the relationship between the federal government and its Higher Education traditionally in State Government and even the local government. The reason why it comes to mind in this particular context because much of what is being done in this area is being done at the state and local level and so there is a question of what is the large role the federal government might play in this area we all know that the traditional role in the government has been providing Student Financial assistance to a greater or lesser extent and i would be remiss if i didnt note in this context that as we talk about the impact of the recession on the Higher Education Higher Education and participation post secondary education that the funds that the congress and president jointly provided. The reauthorization in 2008 stimulus bill and the increasing pell grants and opportunity tax credit that was provided data play an essential role in the plugging the hole that would have been created otherwise for the increase in tuition which was caused in turn by the state budget cuts. So the government by providing the dollars to students from our point of view the federal government did something that even a few years down the road from now deserves to be remembered and applauded and we need to make sure that we keep that level of support for students because they are at this point in time dependent upon it. So in the question of what the colleges can do to help the students be more prepared in fact they are doing a tremendous amount right now that is to some extent unheralded. Probably most people fear that the Community Colleges provide in almost all cases some type of enrollment however you want to label it which is an opportunity for High School Students to acquire Community College credits they might be having those courses delivered to them after high school. They might be going to Community College to take those courses at the concept of the dual enrollment is relatively new although it is very broadbased at this point and it was designed interestingly and importantly not for your classical advanced placement student who is an honor student in high school but for those that are on the margins maybe they were not sure. In the original idea behind the enrollment was to get the students expose her to college and so that is being done on a very broadbased us right this right now and so that does play a role in preparing students to be ready for Community College. Another thing that the clutches are giving and this is more than at the local level to the state level. You find many president s and institutions finding aggressive reaching out to the local high schools to simply increase College Awareness for the students that maybe dont know about Student Financial assistance. They dont know the options that are available. They have wonderful transfer opportunities in the institution to do all those sort of things and in fact some of them are so effective i just heard one grading a little bit that he but that he was providing all these great resources and then they were going off to the four year institution. Be that as it may, it is something i think the colleges are doing that again, it isnt so much a statebased policy in most cases. But it really up to the individual president s to do that and one of the things i want to mention because it is so interesting and potentially helpful in increasing the College Readiness is the administration of placement testing Community Colleges that require almost all students to take when enrolled in the institutions to make sure they are ready to do the Community College work. The institutions some cases on their own dime and the placement test commonly used across the country leading the students know whether they are ready or not for collegelevel work and if they are not the tests would be administered no later than the 11th grade and the radio coursework when they are in high school, whether it be just fine to work at the Community College or four year institution. So they come to the door to check or prepared than they would have otherwise. And i think that these few innovations stand to increase College Readiness in a dramatic way. Of course we have all heard about the common core but they are consistent with it and stand to take students better prepared when they are in the institutions or others. On davids point about administering i think it is an example of a great opportunity for the state policy records because there are a few states. California is one of them where they ended the placement oriented questions on the regular stakes testing regimen. So the sophomore in High School Juniors can get an accurate picture of what they need to do to really be College Ready on day number one. And i think that those kind of policies take what is good institutional practice and left it up to the state policy position to benefit of the students. I could also add particularly for the students that are first in their family to go to college not all of the families fully understand fafsa. They understand funding available to help them and we do participate in the college goal. We work closely with the families and the Community Organizations to help fill out the federal forms which incidentally have been tremendously simplified and improved in recent years. Thank you for that. But we still find in florida where the programs have more than doubled over the past six years we still find we have 138 million a year of funding on the table. Florida isnt alone. Theres an awful lot of available that isnt utilized and we all need to do a better job of communicating and facilitating the application process. The bills david mentioned the student advocacy groups played a huge role in getting across the finish line. Do you see the millennial generation getting engaged on this issue that we are talking about just on the additional aid to demanding the k12 system given what they need to be ready for college as well . Spinet i think so especially the point on the remedial courses. People when they are ready to go to college all of a sudden they realize they have to take these courses and it adds onto that. The people that are already working to support themselves and their families, that come at a time, that extra semester allows the difference between college happening at all or not at all. And i think that being able to look at them is like common core hell do we make sure people are prepared and how do we make sure people are not having to take these remedial courses that they could finish school sooner. If you look across the generations parents want to make sure that their kids can go to college and that they are able to do things like pay off their own student debt. They want to make sure that their own children are not taking out a massive load of that they are impacting their decision for employment. There are so many of my peers and im sure somebody so many in the audience of a story where her friends wanted to go to Public Service and maybe they wanted to be teachers or nurses that to tester asked to be shifted the course because they have so much student debt that they cannot imagine paying down that debt with some of the Public Sector jobs that exist. If you look whether it is the student that cover yes when they are talking directly to the College System and state legislators the ticket to the ballot box as well which is something that we think is very exciting. The president has made it a top priority to increase student aid and then admirably changed the conversation from one about access to one about completion. So they did focus on making sure that there is a good outcome in the postsecondary sector and recently hes also talked about the need to keep the price down. There is only much the federal lead can do if the price continues to go up. One of the big concerns in that space is pressure around price could lead to reduced support at the state or the institutional level for the low income students. Because as you know, not everybody pays Sticker Price and we ought to make sure that all income students were getting the support they need to be successful. How do you think about that in the department pushing the policies in a way that doesnt have an unintended consequence for low income students . Part of the policy conversation that we are having at the present and the place it comes up for example is our discussion about the college ratings. How can we create a Rating System that doesnt create the unintended consequences of encouraging institutions to accept it easiest students to teach or those that could afford the Higher Education being framed. We are thinking about a mixture of different metrics that identify and institutions ability to attract and move through the First Program students as a focal point so we are not creating an incentive to take those people out of the kitchen to find people who are better prepared. We dont think that is in the Public Interest. I want to go back to some of the other underlining dynamics around the student debt. I think the student debt issue is not just people changing their behavior once they are in. One of the things i worry about is the student debt issue may be preventing more and more young people from pursuing a College Degree because they are afraid of the very front edge what they are about to embark on is going to make it harder for them. So, i think the more that we can talk about and get very clear about Public Service loan forgiveness programs and about the president s income driven repayment programs that we are just beginning will making on a payasyougo expanding the pay as you earn the program that we need to work on reducing the price and we need to work on reducing costs and we need to make sure young people understand the range of opportunities that we were dealing with student debt. They drop out before any kind of degree that will help them get a better paying job and that is a population we should have a look at focus on to make sure they know about some of the programs. I just met with a group of latino interns in dc and they are very committed to the Public Interest and theyll have Student Loans and do you know about the incomebased repayment, these are all people that are for the most part senior aides were in college. These are programs that guess we should make sure students know what they are graduating but also in the junior and beginning of senior year in school because they could be making different decisions if they knew some of the programs existed and so i think that is something we all have a role from the University System to the department to us as individuals and talking to our peers. Is the something that your institution is taking deliberate action so that people are aware of them because it does seem like a tragedy to your point about programs being left on the table. It seems like a tragedy if if theyre for students that there are students that could benefit but they dont know about them. Absolutely. We are tidying tying our efforts to communicate such opportunities. I would like to go back to the point and focus on funding or support. On the input if you will, its true after six years of diminishing the Public Investment and increasing tuition in the state of florida, for the first time this year in a long time we have seen an infusion of new investment in public Higher Education around performancebased funding and while across the nation it has perhaps received mixed reviews for a seat state that is investing 100 billion which came to the university of florida so we like it. Based upon the Completion Rate and based upon the attention rates and the percentage of how the students are served and based upon the number of students graduating with without excess hours if we keep piling on the completion expectations many of our students will never get them and they will become so discouraged that they got out and we lose them for a long time. So yes i think of this as representing a change for us. New funding came to us six or seven years ago on the basis being wide open. Its one of the reasons why a think that five of the top ten largest universities in the nations are found in a state the state of florida. We havent quite recovered from accessing to the state of access. Now with a refocus on completion and placement injury confidence we move in the right direction. A couple of comments first of all the issue of the money that students leave on the table in the form of not filing fafsa is very disturbing across the sector. On the source that you cite but clearly at a minimum a quarter of all Community College students enjoy a parttime student at a dont complete the application process. And as i say, it is a very bothersome fact per institutions. Colleges are doing what they can to promote awareness about the Financial Systems and counseling students throughout the application process is remains a hurdle for them and getting back to what i initially started talking about the quandary that the institutional ceos have about the limited resources in one of the Financial Aid offices have a hard time processing the paper or the applications that are coming as opposed to making sure. Its been touched upon fortunately because the low tuitions in the institutions they are able to ensure that the vast majority of coach students dont graduate with that upon completion. About four of the students that attend the Associates Degree have debt and only 17 of all of the credit students borrow and that of course is a function of our low tuitions. In terms of getting students to complete the incentives for them and of course there are a lot of institutional incentives in play which is gaining ground across the country at the state level, one of the things that we think will enhance completion but also the better information about the student outcomes. And we do remain disappointed that there isnt a system that would follow students throughout their Postsecondar

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