Governor puts focus on budget of higher ed.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

SALEM - Signaling that higher education will remain a top priority in the 2009 Legislature, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed two executive orders Tuesday that will help shape college and university budgets into the future.

The two orders establish a commission to draw up a quality education model similar to what the state has for K-12 education and direct state officials to update the method used to calculate the biennial budget for community colleges. Lane Community College President Mary Spilde will co-chair the Postsecondary Quality Education Commission with Oregon State University President Ed Ray.

The aim not only is to help ensure that higher education is adequately funded but to build public support for the budget by making it clear to taxpayers what they're getting for their investment, Kulongoski said.

"Money is only part of the equation," the governor said before signing the orders. "We must also be sure we can articulate clearly to the public what a quality postsecondary education looks like for the global economy in which we live, and we must have the tools to develop a road map that enables us to achieve that goal."

Like the K-12 version, the postsecondary quality education model will define the basic requirements and costs of a community college and university education. The idea is to provide a budget blueprint that legislators and the governor can use to determine how much money lawmakers should allocate to ensure that students in the state's 17 community colleges and seven four-year universities receive the education they expect and need.

Kulongoski said he wants the new model developed in time to use it for his 2009-11 higher education budget. He did not name any members to the commission or say how many will sit on the panel; he plans to discuss appointments with higher education leaders soon.

The update of the community college budget forecast is expected to improve the accuracy of budget calculations. The 17 separate community college districts, each run by its own elected board, haven't always had a clear line of communication with the governor's office or used a common set of budget assumptions.

That has led to problems, such as the one prior to the 2005 session in which miscommunications between community colleges and the state led Kulongoski - who was pressing for increased higher education funding - to propose a community college budget that was actually 5.5 percent lower. The governor said it's past time to develop a better system for budget forecasting.

"Having been in this building 35 years, I don't know why it's taken 35 years to get to this point," he said. "This is a much needed effort on our part."

Cam Preus-Braley, director of the Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development, said work already has begun on developing a common budget framework for community colleges. She agreed that the current system is "antiquated."

"It's time to move into the 21st century," she said.

Developing a quality education model for higher education could prove significantly more challenging than for K-12, which shares a similar curriculum, goals and service needs. Higher education, on the other hand, ranges from adult basic education and vocational training to graduate studies in physics, law and pharmacy.

Kulongoski said the model is a chance for community colleges and universities to work together and find better ways to produce the educated workers the state needs. But he acknowledged that tough issues need to be addressed, not the least of which is the role of the state's four regional universities.

Those campuses - Eastern Oregon, Western Oregon and Southern Oregon universities and the Oregon Institute of Technology - have faced difficult times. The schools lack large population bases and have seen stagnant or declining enrollment, hurting their ability to generate revenue.

That has led to faculty unrest at some schools and program cuts at others as the campuses try to meet needs with the resources available. Developing the quality education model could help focus attention on how to deal with those issues.

It also could lead to a conversation over the structure of the Oregon University System and whether the regional campuses should become branches of the state's larger universities or be managed in some other way. Kulongoski did not tackle that issue directly but did not rule it out and said there are "tough questions that need to be addressed."

"We can't stumble into this issue or else we're going to be in actual crisis in these universities," he said of the smaller campuses. "We cannot continue to do business the way we have."