Higher Education Task Force Reviews Arizona Town Hall

Vern Lamplot
June 23, 2000


Posted May 24, 2000

Arizona's current funding model will no longer serve the needs of high education said a group of citizens attending the Arizona Town Hall in Prescott on May 24.

A report at the end of three days of meetings said a new funding model "should have a more investment-oriented approach and increase the level of investment in research and development at the university level."

The Town Hall preceded a special meeting of the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education. That group, made up of business, regents, university and community college leaders, some of whom participated in the Town Hall, has been charged by Gov. Jane Hull with assessing the state's higher education needs through the year 2020.

Members of the task force said citizens shared a sense of urgency about the changes necessary to improve education in the state. Linda Blessing, executive director of the Arizona Board of Regents, said, "Members (of the Town Hall) understood there was a shortfall in state support."

The report said, "Given changes in the economy and in state funding assistance, Arizona is at a critical point and must immediately and aggressively fund education. Investing money in the higher education system and its students will mitigate the negative impacts of downturns in the economy. Higher education helps drive the Arizona economy and economic development in the state."

In fact, portions of the Town Hall report implied the Arizona Legislature had ducked responsibility to fund higher education. "Town Hall believes the Legislature should not supplant or offset public funding for higher education institutions with private donations," the report states. At another point, the report endorsed the idea of dedicated funding sources, but warned that "any dedicated, new source of funding is not intended to offset general fund allocations, but to increase funds to the higher-education system."

And again, the report supports the use of interest from the state land trust to support the higher-education system but adds, "However this should not be a shell game with general fund appropriations being reduced."

The Town Hall also formally opposed a potential initiative now being circulated that, if passed, would eliminate the state's income tax.

Don Puyear, staff member of the state community college system, said, "Clearly, the non-educators had a good understanding of the needs (of higher education)."

UA President Peter Likins said there will be a follow-up panel to the Town Hall to stimulate implementation of its report that could be a valuable mechanism for the task force.

Task force members discussed a draft of proposed guiding principles to shape its upcoming report to the governor.
The principles discussed are:


  • Lifelong access to education - Provide universal access by overcoming barriers of time, place and social or economic circumstance and expanding the capacities of campuses;
  • Human resources and capital assets conservation - Increasing faculty salaries to competitive levels, addressing chronically deferred maintenance problems and retrofitting older facilities for information technology;
  • New economy - Achieve an educational system that is learner-centered, outcomes-based, technologically integrated, globally competitive, and flexible, agile and market-driven;
  • Excellence - Provide productive academic programs responsive to workforce needs, certificate and degree recipients prepared for life and work; world-leading research and technology transfer for Arizona's new economy;
  • Educational technology - Integrate electronic education with traditional delivery systems, enhance administration and support services and adopt education to student and education to business processes;
  • Capital formation - Propel higher education in Arizona to the next level by enhancing the formation of investment through new funding approaches;
  • Funding - Transform the incentives inherent in funding formulas to include quality, productivity and efficiency;
  • Productivity - Improve contributions of higher education to the productivity of the state;
  • Accountability - Provide more public evidence and recognition of the value added by higher education to the state; more public evidence and recognition of the return on public and private investment; and more public evidence of the outcomes of student learning.



ASU President Lattie Coor said the task force should try to include ballpark dollar amounts connected to the guiding principles to inform decision makers.

The task force is scheduled to present its report to the governor in time to be a factor in the next state biennial budget process that begins this fall.

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