Higher ed officials optimistic as legislative session starts
Higher education officials are “very excited” about the start of a historic legislative session, Chancellor Glen Johnson said last week during a meeting of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
“I think there is a degree and a sense and a feeling of optimism, and we certainly share that in higher education,” Johnson said. “We just need to be working together.”
Gov. Mary Fallin opened the new legislative session Monday with her final State of the State Address, which nodded to that optimism, noting “the prospect of a brighter path forward is so very near.”
The outcome will depend on lawmakers being courageous and passing the Step Up Oklahoma plan put forth by a group of business and community leaders to end the state’s budget impasse, Fallin said.
“The budget and the health of our state are not mine to determine. Instead, both will be decided by what this Legislature does in the next couple of weeks,” she said.
Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis, speaking Sunday on KFOR-4’s “Flash Point,” said he appreciates what the Step Up Oklahoma group has done to address the state budget crisis.
“The frustration has reached the level where people are trying to take it into their own hands,” Hargis said. “They really want the best for Oklahoma, and they have a huge investment in our state.”
He said the plan’s broad-based tax system is just what the state needs.
“This is really a start. We’re stepping up, but there are a lot of steps still to make,” Hargis said.
“If we get to the point, as some want to do, and not fund common ed and higher ed in a proper way, we are going to slowly sink,” he said.
State Regents have requested $901,897,659 in state appropriations for the next fiscal year, an increase of $128.3 million from the current funding level.
The increase amounts to 16.6 percent, the same percentage cut from the higher education budget two years ago. An additional 6 percent was cut this fiscal year.
Fallin’s proposed budget doesn’t include an increase for higher education, but keeps it at the current funding level. The same is true for CareerTech, but the governor is recommending a 12.75 percent increase for common education.
Johnson said higher education officials have completed three of eight stops on a tour of campuses “to get our message out to business leaders and to legislators in their district” about budget needs.
Budget hearings with higher education officials also were held last week in the House and Senate this last week. Johnson told lawmakers the request is centered around three goals — degree completion and workforce development, restoring scholarship programs that have been reduced significantly and fully funding concurrent enrollment for high school seniors.
The state currently pays for 27 percent of the cost of concurrent enrollment, with the colleges and universities covering the rest.
All four subcommittees of the statewide task force on the future of higher education recommended the state should fund 100 percent of the cost. That would be $10.6 million in the new fiscal year.
The recommendation was one of dozens in the task force report, which was finalized last week. Many recommendations require action by the regents and some require action by the Legislature
“We are starting off on a great note,” Johnson said. “This task force could not have come at a better time in terms of recommendations where higher ed as a system is showing that we’re not sitting back.”
Johnson said college presidents and students will gather Feb. 13 to talk with lawmakers about their concerns during Higher Education Day at the state Capitol.