Hutchinson applauds higher-ed’s Broadway
The state’s next governor threw his support behind Arkansas’ head of higher education, a former Democratic legislator, at a meeting of state college and university trustees Friday afternoon.
Former congressman and Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, publicly commended Shane Broadway, the director of the Department of Higher Education, during brief remarks at the annual Trustees Conference.
Hutchinson, who has been busy assembling his administration and putting together a proposed budget, said he would like to keep Broadway as part of his administration.
“I’m very grateful for
[Broadway’s leadership]. … He has done a terrific job for us,” Hutchinson said at the conference, which was held at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. “I know he has opportunities in his life. But if he would like to stay as head of higher education, I hope he would do that.”
Broadway, a former state senator as well as a lieutenant governor candidate in 2010, was deputy director of the Department of Higher Education in 2011 when he replaced former agency head Jim Purcell.
After Friday’s remarks, Broadway said he was “humbled ” by Hutchinson’s confidence in his leadership but that he has several other options, in the public and private sphere, that he has to weigh. Broadway didn’t know how soon he would decide on his next step.
“We’ve had great discussions. … I’ve pledged to him to help his administration in any way,” Broadway said. “I’ve got a great team. Whatever my options I might consider, it will be to try and assist [Hutchinson’s] administration any way we can.”
He added, “It’s a nice problem to have, I guess, to have options.”
Broadway, 42, earns $168,128.69 annually as the state’s higher education director.
Hutchinson, who defeated former Democratic Congressman Mike Ross in last month’s gubernatorial election, has retained several current department heads, including John Selig, director of the Department of Human Services.
But, the state’s surgeon general, Dr. Joe Thompson, is stepping down, as is the head of the Arkansas State Police, Col. Stan Witt. Replacing Witt will be Bill Bryant, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official. Hutchinson used to work at the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Hutchinson told college and university officials Friday that he campaigned as the “jobs governor,” and that higher education has a vested interest in creating jobs to employ its graduates. He also wants higher-education officials to work with his administration in developing new approaches for higher education in Arkansas.
“We, as a small state, cannot simply rely upon the traditional methods of tax and spend, if you will, in order to meet the needs of this state,” Hutchinson said. “We have to grow our economy so we can have a greater revenue base for our programs.”
Saying that he was still working on a proposed budget and was still grappling with how best to approach the state’s private option, he pledged that he would stand with higher-education advocates and ensure that funding for the state’s colleges and universities would not be cut.
When asked if he would support giving more tax dollars to public education institutions, the University of Arkansas law graduate said “No, I was very careful in my language. I simply said there would not be any cut in higher education funding.”
Asked if the funding mechanisms and allocation levels need to be tweaked, Hutchinson said he is willing to listen to proposed changes but he hasn’t seen the need for any yet.
Hutchinson’s words Friday were met with applause from a group that, Broadway said, has had some worries about the commitments from the state budget.
During budget hearings in October, Broadway told lawmakers that he didn’t expect the state to support a $143.8 million increase for higher education in fiscal 2016, which would raise the overall state funding to $962.2 million.
Broadway said funding for public higher-education institutions has been mostly “flat” for about 10 years, while additional money has been allocated to the kindergarten-through-12th-grade system.
Given that the state has a new governor, a new Legislature, and a new set of issues that will be debated during the January legislative session, Broadway said, the governor’s remarks were very much welcome.
“Everyone knows all the issues the governor has to deal with and the Legislature has to deal with … with everything they’ve got on their plate, from prisons, to the private option, to tax cuts and everything else, to have him say that, and reassure them, it helps in a lot of ways,” Broadway said.
“Certainly having the governor’s [support] helps when you’re talking to legislators about the importance of higher education, or at least keeping us where we’re at. And if there’s something at the end of the day that you can put in higher education, it would certainly be used and appreciated.”