The plan to make at least the top Virginia universities \u201ccharter schools\u201d with more autonomy from state regulation is gathering momentum, with support from the House Speaker Bill Howell (R-Stafford) and Gov. Mark Warner.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Bill Howell said<\/a> he plans to introduce legislation that would free all public colleges from some state bureaucracy but would also enable individual institutions to petition the state for “a higher level of autonomy.” Howell, R-Stafford County, did not explain further. But the statement from Howell – as well as similar sentiments expressed by the other members of the commission studying the issue – will probably bolster efforts by Virginia Tech and other universities to reduce red tape. <\/p>\n
\u2026”It reinforces each board of visitors’ authority and responsibility for meeting those expectations,” said [John] Bennett<\/a>, who directed the Finance Committee’s staff before Warner tapped him as finance secretary.<\/p>\n
“It does grant some operational flexibility in return for a commitment toward meeting these expectations, sets forth a process for actually translating those expectations into a way that we can actually measure them, and then provides some incentives” to universities that meet them, he said.<\/p>\n
Bennett said the legislation will be complex, so the details will matter, and that Warner “is completely comfortable with the framework.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A framework is all we\u2019ve got<\/a> upon which to judge the proposal.<\/p>\n
A subcommittee exploring the possibility of giving more autonomy to colleges and universities has worked out broad guidelines to cut state oversight into personnel, purchasing and construction expenditures.<\/p>\n
But the subcommittee has yet to be able to reach agreements between state officials and college heads on how to ensure that tuition remains reasonable, that Virginian students can still get into those schools and that the state retains the right to conduct comprehensive performance and fiscal audits.<\/p>\n
During a two-hour meeting Tuesday, the subcommittee – on which Howell sits – was briefed on progress that has been made, but was told that many details have yet to be worked out.<\/p>\n
Agreements with college presidents have been negotiated on the overall concept of granting those schools more independence, but other sticky issues to be finalized include:<\/p>\n
Establishing detailed, written expectations for each school’s performance if granted reduced state oversight.<\/p>\n
Setting academic standards for each school that opts into the initiative.<\/p>\n
Figuring out how to set a fair base state funding level for those schools, with incentives for good performance.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As the Charlottesville Daily Progress reports<\/a>, at least some citizens are organizing against the proposal.<\/p>\n
Four Charlottesville residents criticized the charter proposal, including Tom Gayner, a UVa graduate who said that he worries that universities could adopt the UVa law and graduate business school models of charging in-state students $27,000 and $32,000 a year, respectively, which he said could freeze out much of the middle class.<\/p>\n
“In the middle, there tends to be a squeeze where people can pay the tuition, but it is burdensome as well,” Gayner said. “I think we are on the verge of rushing to make a massive change for a successful system in a rush and without perhaps full awareness of the ramifications of the change.”<\/p>\n
Gayner said he is part of a parents’ network for affordable tuition formed in the past five days to oppose the charter proposal.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Tuition is certainly one issue. If the schools increase tuition 10% per year over the next five years, that means that costs for today\u2019s eighth graders will be over $20,600 for tuition room and board (assuming R&B also increases 10% a year) plus the costs of books and personal expenses, as compared to under $13,000 a year for this year\u2019s students.<\/p>\n
But more important, no where have I seen any discussion of what percentage of incoming classes will be held for Virginians. Right now it\u2019s only 65-70%, as compared to the University of North Carolina, another highly rated public school, that reserves 82% of its seats for in-state students. I think the pressure will be on UVa. to hike the number of higher paying out-of-state students.<\/p>\n
But what irks me most about this issue is how the schools have intentionally hidden the details from the public. They\u2019ll eventually will be released, but probably with only a few days for the public to digest them before the Assembly votes them into law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The plan to make at least the top Virginia universities \u201ccharter schools\u201d with more autonomy from state regulation is gathering momentum, with support from the House Speaker Bill Howell (R-Stafford) and Gov. Mark Warner. House Speaker Bill Howell said he plans to introduce legislation that would free all public colleges from some state bureaucracy but… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}