Affordable College Excellence
Chet Culver’s Higher Education Plan
Iowa’s tradition of excellence in education doesn’t end with graduation from high school. Our colleges and universities offer our students meaningful opportunities to work in diverse fields and to develop the skills they need to compete as workers in the global economy.
It's time to build on our strengths in education as we prepare Iowa students for the exciting opportunities in renewable energy and alternative fuels that will be created as Iowa leads the way in energy independence and begins to Fuel the World. Iowa has the opportunity to become the Silicon Valley of the renewable energy industry when employers begin to tap the full potential of that industry.
In this way, higher education is an important part of our economic development efforts. If we are to retain and lure the jobs of the future, we must place an immediate focus on the workforce of the future. That means we must preserve and develop accessible, affordable college options for every Iowa student who has the ability and commitment to complete a degree program. Our university system must be part of Iowa’s strategy to build a workforce and business community that is second to none.
I understand the impact college opportunity and affordability has on students, even in the early years of high school. I was a teacher for four years in the Des Moines School District, at Hoover High School and Roosevelt High School.i I have taught and coached students, I have worked in schools, and I know our strengths and weaknesses better than any other candidate for Governor.
I would be the only Governor in the nation who has been in the classroom in the last 20 years and I will take a back seat to no one when it comes to preparing Iowa students for the future.
As a teacher, I saw talented students who struggled because they were not well-prepared earlier in their academic careers. I saw brilliant colleagues leave the profession after years of hard work. I worked with and tutored qualified students who wanted to go on to college but could not afford to do so.
I also know the state of our schools because I have another full-time job: I am a parent. I understand the concerns of Iowans because I live them everyday. I want my children, Clare, 5 and John, 3, to have the best education in the world. I want my children, your children, and every child in Iowa, to have the skills to succeed in a world economy.
I. Creating Opportunity for Iowa’s Future
Despite our state’s proud history of support for public postsecondary education, there are real challenges that remain. Bold leadership and vision will be required to meet them. There are two principles that drive my plan for the future of higher education in Iowa:
A. The cost of higher education is skyrocketing, becoming out of reach for many of our low and middle income students.
- Tuition at our regents universities is up an average of 62 percent over a four-year period. We risk pricing lower and middle income students out of the market for higher education altogether.
- Iowa has the 9th highest community college costs in the nation. Even students seeking an affordable alternative to starting at a four-year school are meeting significant cost barriers.
B. We must expand the number of Iowa college graduates because a degree means a dramatic increase in earnings over a lifetime for every Iowan who earns one.
- It has been shown that a college degree produces an increase of at least one million dollars in the earnings of a worker over the course of a career.
- The most recent survey shows that 89.8% of Iowans have graduated from high school, placing our state ninth in the nation,ii but Iowa ranks only 38th in the nation for citizens with a college education.iii
States choosing to invest in people and grow their economies by increasing the number of college graduates will be the leaders in the 21st Century economy. Iowa must be one of those states. The results will be better incomes for graduates, an increase in the state’s average wage and an attractive business climate. Iowa has laid the groundwork for excellence, and now its time to take the next steps. I have outlined my plan to meet these two critical challenges below.
II. The Culver Action Agenda for Higher Education
My plan will expand investments in colleges across Iowa, our public colleges and universities so that each can become a generator of world-class new businesses and economic activity, and better integrate all facets of higher education with business.
1. Redouble Our Commitment to Higher Education
We need to take immediate action to help Iowa high school students afford Iowa options for higher education. While we have made a start toward increased support for our universities and community colleges, the challenge is to retain our high school graduates in 2007 and beyond. Maintaining accessibility to affordable educational opportunities must be a primary focus of our efforts.
A. An Additional $25 Million for Iowa’s Regents University System
Accessibility to our three major universities is in jeopardy due to skyrocketing tuition costs. Tuition at Iowa’s universities is out of control, with an average increase of 68 percent over the last four school years. This is unacceptable, especially in a state that prides itself on educational achievement. Middle-class Iowa students are being blocked from pursuing the four-year education they are capable of earning, solely because the prospective student loan debt load is not manageable for them. At Iowa State University, students graduate with an average debt load of more than $29,000, one of the highest rates among public colleges anywhere in the country. If we believe in access to affordable higher education offered at state universities, the tuition explosion must be addressed immediately.
Students who are lower middle income and qualify for federal need-based aid are rapidly being priced out of a public education in Iowa. Among states the Iowa public university system ranks 51st in making use of funds that help low-income kids go to college (behind all states and Puerto Rico). We need to open the doors of opportunity for those students. Creating an affordable four-year higher education at Iowa’s universities will encourage them to consider this option.
The benefits of direct investment in the university system include lower tuition, but also better pay and working conditions for faculty members and research assistants who are the backbone of the higher education instruction process.
Other benefits of increased state investment in universities include:
- a wider variety of class offerings
- lower student-teacher ratio
- better recruitment and retention of faculty
Our state budget is more than a financial statement: it is also a statement of our priorities. Our budget is the manifestation of our values. Let every Iowan know where my values are: I value higher education. That is why I will support an immediate 3% increase in direct investment in our Regents’ University System. This will result in an increase of $25 million.
These funds will be used to support better access for current and prospective students, cutting edge research, and great classroom teaching.
B. Recommit to Community College Excellence
This spring, Iowa legislators honored the foresight of those members who were in office when the community college system was created at the urging of Gov. Harold Hughes exactly forty years ago, in 1966. At the time, the concept of the community college was relatively untested and seen as either a challenge to the existing university system or a waste of precious job-training and vocational education dollars.
The community college system has grown and expanded to become a part of an invaluable vocational education system as well as a center of lifelong learning and community education courses. Students routinely use their local community college as a less expensive stepping stone to the university system.
Now, it’s time to update our community colleges for the mission of reorienting Iowa’s workforce to the challenges of the new economy. As we explore our state’s potential in renewable energy and alternative fuels, community colleges must provide workers with the specific skills they will need to fill the jobs that are created.
Public-private partnerships will be the mechanism for filling those specific needs. Already, employers are requesting that state job-training dollars (through the 260E and 260F programs) be tailored to the specific needs of an industry or company. The state has a role in creating that partnership, and along the way we will strengthen community colleges by expanding their course offerings and bringing the expertise of industry professionals to the classroom.
Our small business training alliances will serve smaller Iowa-based companies that may not have the ability to run a training program on their own, but could join together as part of an industry wide consortium of small employers to create such a program.
There will be a benefit too, for displaced workers seeking retraining and placement into jobs in a given community so that families are not forced to relocate in the event of a job change. For those who need it, retraining offers a path to better earnings and more skills, and Iowa’s community colleges will be asked to do more than ever to prepare existing workers for new jobs.
And, we must expand our educational offerings in the areas of marketing, entrepreneurship, management and human resources to meet the needs of employers seeking to locate and/or expand in Iowa.
I will commit a combination of job-training, economic development and higher education dollars totaling $12.5 million with a target of attracting an additional investment of $12.5 million by private companies who will partner with the community colleges to create innovative new skills-training programs for Iowa workers.
This additional investment will help us raise our average community college instructor pay above its current level, which is approximately $15,000 below what the average community college instructor in the Midwest receives.
2. First Year Free for Iowa College Students
Access to college begins with the student’s ability to fund the first year of education. Students and their families who need immediate assistance in meeting high tuition costs, especially low and middle income students who are often the first generation in their family to attend college, will get immediate assistance through three initiatives that result in at least one year of tuition at an Iowa college or university at no cost or very little cost to the student.
A. Earn College Credit in a Senior Year Plus
Virginia Governor Mark Warner has instituted a program in which high school students can access college course offerings in their own high school classrooms (through distance learning programs) and/or at local community colleges.
This program provides high school students with an opportunity to earn up to a full year of college credit by the time they leave their high schools. The “Senior Year Plus” program makes available all of the college freshman-level courses, at very low or no cost to the high school student who demonstrates an ambition and a commitment to achieve first year college level course work. Students, the local school district and the state share the expenses of the course work. For example, students purchase their own books for many courses.
I will invest up to $3 million in an Iowa Senior Year Plus program. I will bring together local school districts, Community Colleges, Iowa’s private colleges and major Universities and state government to set protocols on who pays for the transfer of college level credits when a student graduates from high school and chooses a college in Iowa. Whether the college a student chooses is public or private, the goal is maximum transferability of credit hours. My administration will develop an equitable cost share formula for interested local school districts and the state Department of Education. Under the Iowa Senior Year Plus program, high school students will be allowed to pursue academic coursework or selected advanced technical training in the field of his/her choice. For example, a student interested in dentistry could begin work toward a certificate in dental assisting, a good way for students to help pay for some of the costs of their own education.
Many first year college students actually enroll in courses that offer high school review as a way to obtain skills or background that they did not obtain in high school. Up to 50 percent of first-year students take some form of remedial class. Senior Year Plus will help those students access the rigorous curriculum they will need to succeed in college, prior to the completion of high school.
Students also will be required to abide by program requirements including an agreement (signed along with their parents) not to have law violations and to follow through and attend an Iowa college or university.
Iowa’s high schools should be encouraged and rewarded for developing college credit opportunities for their students. Local community colleges can help attract bright, local high school students who may decide to enroll full time after graduation. Students and their families will have an opportunity to pursue college credits at low or no cost and get a head start on their college education. I believe the Senior Year Plus program will create a win/win situation for all participants. My administration will make a financial commitment of $3 million to get the program started in my first year in office.
B. Meeting an Immediate Need for Access to Higher Education – the All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship
Too many Iowa students do not go to college, and some do not even apply, because they believe that they will not able to afford the cost of tuition. This is particularly true now in Iowa as Community College and state University tuitions have increased dramatically in the past several years.
We need to reach out to these students right now by expanding our scholarship assistance. More than two-thirds of our high school graduates do not go on to earn a four-year degree. Make no mistake - this is a matter of survival for Iowa’s economy because we continue to move towards a knowledge-based economy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, states with the highest percentage of adults with college degrees have the fastest growing economies, the lowest rates of unemployment, and the highest growth in income nationwide.
Statistics bear out what we all know: a college education makes a big difference in the “family economy” of each graduate. According to a 2002 US Census Bureau study, those who graduate from college earn an average of $2.1 million over the course of their adult working life. The same study indicated that high school graduates earned an average of $1.2 million - almost a 2-1 difference. A 2005 US Census Bureau study shows that this gap between college graduates’ earnings and high school graduates’ earnings continues to grow - and that even two years of college makes a big (almost 50%) difference in earning potential.
Access to the American dream - a good job with good benefits, a home, and the ability to start and raise a family - increasingly requires a college education. And too often, kids who don’t get a college education, or who lack the hope or opportunity to achieve higher education struggle to succeed. It is time that we recognize this as a fact of life in the 21st century and begin to provide new opportunities so more Iowa students can go to college. A tuition freeze alone will not get the job done. Every child in Iowa deserves access to quality higher education and we should take steps right away to provide more college opportunities to Iowa’s students.
In my first legislative session, I will propose the rapid implementation of an All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship Program for Iowa’s high school juniors in the fall of 2007. I will propose that the state start off with up to a $25 million commitment to a new All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2007-08, enough to provide at least 5,000 new college scholarships in the first year of the program.
The All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship will pay for up to a year of college at the regents institutions or up to two years of community college and will substantially expand Iowa’s current needs-based grant programs and make college more accessible and affordable to students of lower and middle income families. Since the scholarships will be paid directly to Community Colleges and Universities, the overall cost of the program may be less than $25 million as scholarship students may choose to attend any Iowa Community College, where in many instances, the tuition and fees are less than $5,000 per year.
My administration will make sure that the award of an All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship cannot be the basis for denying a student access to other existing state or federal scholarship funding for which they currently qualify. In other words, an All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship will be eligible to be coupled with Pell Grants and other existing state programs to help pay for a student’s college education.
Eventually, this program will be integrated into and/or replace Iowa’s current needs-based college grant programs with a long term goal of doubling current needs-based aid in Iowa and ensuring a two year scholarship for eligible students. The scholarship does not affect the Iowa Tuition Grant program for which more than 13,000 Iowa high school students who attend private colleges in the state every year are eligible. That program will remain in place and continue to provide a path for students who wish to attend one of Iowa’s outstanding smaller liberal arts colleges, for example, to meet tuition costs.
However, my All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship will require students to work hard and play by the rules to continue to receive state scholarship support. The requirements a student will need to meet in order to qualify for the scholarship include:
a. refrain from law violations
b. earn at least a 2.5 cumulative grade point average
c. agree work at least 10 hours per week while a scholarship recipient
d. graduate from an Iowa college or university
e. sign a contract (along with parents) to follow program rules.
The program rules apply not only in high school but once a student begins college coursework. Students who have law violations or are subjected to a formal disciplinary procedure at any Iowa high school, Community College or University will lose eligibility for the All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship. This promise to stay away from illegal behavior will continue through the second year of college for participating students.
C. Meeting the Longer Term Need for Access to Higher Education – Expanding the All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship Program
I believe the promise of a two-year college scholarship can provide a powerful incentive to our young high school students. At the same time that we set up the All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship providing immediate relief to high school juniors in the 2007-08 schoolyear, my administration will lay the groundwork for transforming the initial investment into a longer term college scholarship program in Iowa.
The expanded program will provide incentives for all of Iowa’s high school students regardless of need, to work hard, play by the rules and be rewarded with a two-year college scholarship.
Beginning with the class of students who enter eighth grade in the 2007-08 schoolyear, the All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship will be open to all high school students who are able to meet the program requirements:
a. refrain from law violations
b. earn at least a 2.5 cumulative grade point average
c. agree work at least 10 hours per week while a scholarship recipient
d. graduate from an Iowa college or university
e. sign a contract (along with parents) to follow program rules.
If they meet the requirements, students will become eligible for an All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship.
My administration will work with Iowa’s Education Leaders and adopt the best practices of other scholarship programs now operating in Iowa and elsewhere to further develop and refine the eligibility criteria for the All-Iowa Opportunity Scholarship. My goal will be to provide high school students with more opportunities for higher education in Iowa, while encouraging students to play by the rules and achieve academic success.
3. Controlling the Cost of Higher Education
First, and foremost, we must control the wild increases in the cost of higher education. A recent Congressional report indicated that Iowa’s tuition increased 20% in just one year, while state support for higher education actually decreased.XVII Iowa’s tuition increase was among the highest in the nation – second only to Massachusetts. Over the ten year period ending in 2003, average tuition at public and private four-year colleges rose 38% after inflation.XVIII Since 1981, the cost of a four-year degree at a public university increased 20% percent, while the CPI increased only 80%.
Iowans have a right to know that their tax dollars are being spent wisely. A poll shows that 33% of respondents believe that wasteful spending is a primary reason that costs have increased.XIX Another 22% believe that colleges are spending too much money on construction projects that are not related to class room instruction.XX Before we spend more money our taxpayers must know that that we are doing everything we can to cut costs. Here is my plan to control the costs of higher education:
A. Incentive Funding for Schools Which Limit Tuition Increases
As noted above, Texas has linked funding to particular objective criteria. In my administration, one of those criteria will be rewarding schools that limit their tuition increases to the rate of inflation. In Michigan, Governor Granholm provided tax credits to students attending state schools that limited tuition increases to the CPI and returned budget funding to schools that had kept their increases low. In Michigan, the costs of a two-year degree went from above the national average before this policy to less than the national average after this policy. I will make it clear that schools that limit their tuition increases will be rewarded by increased support.
B. Expanded Use of Technology And Distance Learning
Iowa is already implementing technology to re-think and re-build how we educate our college students. As Governor, I will expand these efforts. These new technologies can increase access to higher education to new populations of students at a much lower cost than traditional classroom instruction. Around the world there are now 11 "mega-universities" entirely devoted to technology-based distance teaching. At each of these virtual colleges more than 100,000 students are actively enrolled in degree-granting courses. Collectively, these distance-learning institutions enroll more than 2.8 million students at substantially less cost than do traditional institutions. The most prominent of these, the British Open University, educates more than 150,000 students at about half the per-student cost of a traditional university. These innovative institutions have achieved two critical breakthroughs: they have exploded college access, by reaching students in new ways at times and places convenient to the students; and slashed costs, by teaching students at half the cost of traditional instruction. I believe that we should be more aggressive in adopting distance learning programs in Iowa’s colleges and universities.
C. Create New Reciprocal Tuition Arrangements
The states of Kansas and Missouri have negotiated reciprocal tuition agreements to address the shortfalls in the universities in each state. For example, Kansas students receive discounts at Missouri’s schools of optometry and dentistry. In exchange, Missouri students receive discounts at the architecture programs at the University of Kansas and Kansas State.
Iowa should create and expand these types of reciprocal agreements with its neighboring states in those areas where they can save money and/or avoid new costs. For example, the Iowa Regent Universities might decide not to build a new facility or school when there is already an underutilized and comparable facility or school in a neighboring state. Reciprocal tuition agreements can lead to cost savings and improved educational opportunities for Iowa students.
4. Attracting and Retaining Student Excellence and Students in Targeted Fields
A. Expanding Merit Grants
We must encourage and reward excellence. That is why we should provide state funds to match all Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarships. We should send a message that quality counts. Expanding merit scholarships is one way to honor the hard work that it takes to achieve excellence.
B. Expanding Access by Creating a Virtual College
On-line higher education is the future, although few institutions have yet been able to make it work seamlessly. In New Mexico, a Virtual College is funded on a trial basis, and provides just basic courses. In Britain, they have an open university that teaches students and awards degrees at half the cost of tradition universities. In Iowa, we are already expanding our distance learning options. As Governor, I will make it a goal to establish a virtual college that will let busy parents and hard working students earn a degree on their own time.
C. Providing the Seed for Teachers
Every farmer knows that you don’t eat the seed corn. Instead, you find your best seed and plant it so that the next harvest will be better than the last. Our teachers – and our students studying to become teachers – will provide the next harvest of talented Iowans. We need to encourage more of our best students to go into teaching. Iowa should provide double awards for Teacher Shortage Forgivable Loans, and target “Educational Opportunity Zones” in districts where retention has been a problem, including in rural districts
D. Targeting Nurses
According to the Iowa Council of Nurses, our state will be facing a shortage of 2,500 nurses in the near future. Even though 200 new nurses are licensed ever year, this is not sufficient to keep pace with the needs of Iowa. Iowa already has Nursing Education Loan Forgiveness Program and we should add $2 million in funding to expand the program and increase participation. We need to keep more of our trained professional nurses working in Iowa and by expanding and improving this program, we can provide the targeted incentives that can make a big difference.
III. Higher Education Means Higher Earnings for a Lifetime
The advantages of a college education are indisputable: college graduates will earn one million dollars more during their lifetimes than those who do not go to college. In 1980, Iowans earned 95% of average American income.XXI In 2000, the average Iowan earned only 89.3%.XXII
I will make it a priority for Iowa to reverse its position as a low-wage state. In 2005, of the nine states in the Midwest, only South Dakota had a higher percentage of low-wage jobs. That is not the kind of race we intend to win. Increasing the number of college graduates and then placing them into the jobs of the future here in Iowa will boost overall wages and help the state’s economy grow as a result.
We are starting to see an increase in college participation: 64.3% of our nineteen year olds continue on to college and 51.2% of the college age population is in higher education. This ranks us fifth and fourth respectively among the states.
We need to expand our focus so that Iowa high school students attend college in Iowa, and then start their careers here after college. Together with the faculties at our colleges and universities, those graduates will help build the research and manufacturing spin-offs that higher education has generated for economies in other states. . Iowa can be second to none when it comes to college graduates who are best prepared to enter their field and excel immediately. Investment in affordable, accessible higher education will be the key to Iowa realizing its full economic potential.
Unfortunately, education is one of Iowa's leading "export" industries. Our world-class universities attract more out-of-state students than those of any other state, bringing in capital from out-of-state in return for our providing world-class services to non-Iowans.
I want my children to graduate in an Iowa that creates and keeps the high-technology jobs of the future. I want employers to grow Iowa-based businesses or relocate from other states because of the high-skill, well-prepared workforce we have the capacity to create.
Only by taking all of the steps in this plan can we begin the process of building the new economic powerhouse Iowa has the potential to be.
i http://www.ChetCulver.com/about/
ii http://www.postsecondary.org/archives/Reports/Spreadsheets/StateDataBk/IA.htm
iii Id.
xvii http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/issues/108th/education/highereducation/CollegeCostCrisisReport.pdf at p. 13
xviii Id.
xix Id. at 10.
xx Id.
xxi http://www.state.ia.us/educate/ccwp/cc/reports/alltogether_files/frame.htm
xxii http://www.state.ia.us/educate/ccwp/cc/reports/alltogether_files/frame.htm
