Arizona Education Network

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The Arizona Board of Regents, university leaders and students in Arizona are engaged in an ongoing effort to revamp the structure of higher education in our state.  This week the Arizona Education Network looks at some of the latest statistics and information related to our higher education goals and outlook for the future.

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Why Change?

Competitiveness, affordability, capacity and efficiency are four of the top motivating factors for rethinking the current state university system.  Despite our current economic downturn, Arizona’s population is projected to increase by 85% between 2000 and 2025 and it is universally recognized that our state would benefit socially and economically if we were able to increase our college graduation rates.

According to Solutions Through Higher Education, Arizona’s spending on education and higher education indicators currently lag behind other US states:

Arizona ranks

• 43^rd in Percentage of High School Graduates Going Directly to College
• 45^th in Ninth Graders Going to College by age 19
• 47^th in Percentage of Adults Ages 25-34 with a High School Diploma
• 46^th in Four-Year College Graduation Rates
• 39^th in Younger Population with a College Degree

The Arizona Board of Regents, the officiating body for Arizona universities, outlines their goals for higher education in their ‘2020 Vision’ report.  The goals they envision reaching in the next decade include:
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>>Arizona Now                              Arizona in 2020:  Goals

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Prime Target

The move to decentralize Arizona’s three core state universities is an idea that is gaining momentum within most stakeholder circles.  Allowing the universities to expand their courses in non-traditional venues and in rural areas could reduce administrative and student costs and allow easier access to facilities in the outlying areas that are generally under served.  As the most recent Daily Star article on the subject notes:
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“This could be the Arizona university experience of the next decade:  Rather than moving to Tucson, Tempe or Flagstaff, some rural students would take classes closer to home at six to eight new regional campuses.  Their annual tuition would be about $2,500 less than current $7,000 levels, and classes would be scheduled to accommodate older students with families and jobs.

More students would earn degrees through partnerships with community colleges. They’d always know whether a particular two-year college credit would transfer to the university of their choice, and their classes would be led by people hired for their ability to teach, not to attract large research grants. Some students might instead take classes from home, as universities beef up their online offerings…

…Altogether, this bold new higher-education system envisioned by the Arizona Board of Regents and university leaders would have 30,000 more students each year than the state’s three universities now have.”
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The Arizona Education Network has also received a comprehensive plan put together by Arizona State University graduate student Sanjeev Ramchandra.  His proposal, Establishing Phoenix State University (PSU) and the Arizona Institute of Technology (AzTech), envisions a new cost and program structure within Arizona’s largest state university and addresses an idea to tier tuition in a way that will make a quality higher education more accessible for students.

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Budget Concerns

While the student population in our state has surged, the amount Arizona appropriates for higher learning has fallen by 44% in the last three decades; from nearly 20% of the general fund in 1979 to around 11% today.

The Regents report that the 2020 Plan was designed with the current economic crisis in mind.  The plan synopsis states that:   “the framework and the priorities of the long-term plan will drive strategies for managing the impact over the short-term while the economy is recovering.  In addition, the longer-term horizon of the plan allows for thoughtful planning in spite of short-term economic setbacks.”

Nonetheless, Arizona will need strong leadership, a willingness to accept new ideas and a realistic assessment of the costs associated with educational improvements within our state legislature if we are able to reach the 2020 goals for higher education.  The universities absorbed over $190 million in state funding cuts during FY 2009 alone – a reduction equivalent to 13% of their normal state funding.

The current FY 09-10 budget proposal seeks to eliminate an additional $100 million in funding to universities and suspends capital outlay funding for community colleges in addition to other structural cuts.  Although Arizona has been slated to receive monies from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to help offset these reductions;  it remains to be seen if  our legislature can balance the state budget while still maintaining the budget threshold required by the federal government in order to qualify for the stimulus aid.

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Find Out More

2020 Vision, The Arizona University System Long-term Strategic Plan 2009-2020, Arizona Board of Regents

AZ higher ed looking like a new world , Arizona Daily Star, August 23, 2009

Low-cost university sites mulled for Arizona, Arizona Republic, June 15, 2009

Establishing Phoenix State University (PSU) & the Arizona Institute of Technology (AzTech), Sanjeev Ramchandra, June 15, 2009

Arizona Mulls No-Frills College Plan, ABC News, June 22, 2009

Solutions Through Higher Education

Achieving the Dream:  Community Colleges Count

Education Pays:  Trends in Higher Education, College Board, 2007

Demography Is Not Destiny:  Increasing the Graduation Rates of Low-Income College Students at Large Public Universities, Pell Insititute, 2007

A push to boost college graduation rates, Christian Science Monitor, December 3, 2008

Measuring Up 2008:  A National Report Card on Higher Education, National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2008
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