Needed change coming to higher education

Published 10:04 am Friday, December 21, 2012

Fewer than half of the 430,000-plus students who enter Ohio’s public colleges and universities graduate, and of those who do earn a degree, it generally takes six years instead of four.

Against that backdrop, a special gubernatorial commission has developed a new funding plan for higher education that emphasizes graduation rates, rather than enrollment. The plan would also reward those institutions that enable their students to earn their degrees in four years, instead of the normal six.

“I have long been opposed to being evaluated on the number students coming in the door,” said Youngstown State University President Cynthia Anderson, who has embraced the commission’s funding recommendations. “I think universities should be evaluated on what they’re doing with the students who choose to come through their doors …”

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Anderson’s predecessors emphasized enrollment because the state funding formula has been based, in large part, on the full-time equivalent number of students….

But while YSU’s president, like her colleagues around the state, is enthusiastic about the new state funding plan developed by the governor’s commission — it was led by Ohio State University President Gordon Gee — the goal of four-year graduation won’t be easy to attain….

A key recommendation has to do with the way the $1.75 billion in state funding for four-year institutions will be divided. Fifty percent of funding in the first year of the biennium will be based on degree completion….

Change is coming to Ohio’s universities and colleges, including two-year institutions.

The (Youngstown) Vindicator

 

Kasich’s turnpike proposal is simple yet effective

The plan Gov. John Kasich released about how to make the Ohio Turnpike’s revenues work for Ohio demonstrates his business acumen.

After a consultant’s study showed that leasing the 241-mile turnpike to a private company likely wouldn’t pay enough upfront to make it worthwhile to hand over a state asset, Kasich took a pass.

Instead, the administration has struck an inventive compromise….

The turnpike will not be leased. It remains in the state’s hands. Employees won’t be laid off. Instead, the state will sell bonds against future turnpike revenues and use those dollars — $1.5 billion from bonds plus $1.5 billion in matching local and federal funds — to speed rebuilding of the turnpike and other roads across Ohio. This $3 billion offsets a $1.6 billion highway-budget deficit, meaning roadwork postponed by the Ohio Department of Transportation for 20 years now gets done in six. And gas-tax hikes, which kill jobs and strain family budgets, don’t happen….

The Ohio Turnpike Commission remains an independent, public governing body and gains a stronger role, overseeing where bond money is spent and working with ODOT….

Good solutions are often simple, but not always obvious. The governor’s plan still will require legislative changes, to allow spending turnpike revenue more than one mile from the toll road. But Kasich’s home-equity line for the Ohio turnpike is politically and practically elegant. It calms angst up north, plugs another deficit without raising taxes and is backed by the Turnpike Commission.

The Columbus Dispatch