By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington for the Financial Times (link to original story)
December 8, 2013 5:51 pm
Americans who are buying insurance plans over online exchanges, under what is known as Obamacare, will have limited access to some of the nation’s leading hospitals, including two world-renowned cancer centres.
Amid a drive by insurers to limit costs, the majority of insurance plans being sold on the new healthcare exchanges in New York, Texas, and California, for example, will not offer patients’ access to Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan or MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, two top cancer centres, or Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, one of the top research and teaching hospitals in the country.
Experts say the move by insurers to limit consumers’ choices and steer them away from hospitals that are considered too expensive, or even “inefficient”, reflects the new competitive landscape in the insurance industry since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law.
It could become another source of political controversy for the Obama administration next year, when the plans take effect. Frustrated consumers could then begin to realise what is not always evident when buying a product as complicated as healthcare insurance: that their new plans do not cover many facilities or doctors “in network”. In other words, the facilities and doctors are not among the list of approved providers in a certain plan.
Under some US health insurance plans, consumers can elect to visit medical facilities that are “out of network”, but they would probably incur high out of pocket costs and may need referrals to prove that such care is medically necessary. The development is worrying some hospital administrators who see the change as an unintended consequence of the ACA.
“We’re very concerned. [Insurers] know patients that are sick come to places like ours. What this is trying to do is redirect those patients elsewhere, but there is a reason why they come here. These patients need what it is that we are capable of providing,” says Thomas Priselac, president and chief executive officer of Cedars-Sinai Health System in California.
One of the biggest goals of “Obamacare” was to make subsidised healthcare plans that are being sold on the new exchanges as affordable as possible, while also mandating that certain benefits, like maternity care, were covered and that people with pre-existing medical conditions could not be denied access.
Amid these new regulatory restrictions, says Tim Jost, a health policy expert, insurance companies have had to come up with new ways to cut the cost of their products. In this new era, limiting the availability of certain facilities that are seen as too expensive – in part because they may attract the sickest patients or offer the most cutting edge medical care – is seen as the best way to control costs.
“It’s like buying a Mercedes-Benz or a Chevy. You have to decide whether you want to pay for the highest product out there, which is probably pretty good quality, or the less expensive product,” Mr Jost says. “Everyone is in favour of competition until they see what it looks like. Then they think, maybe it’s better for someone else just to pay for the whole thing.”
Kathleen Harrington, who heads government relations for the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, says that access to the famous clinic was initially limited in the Rochester, Minnesota area until officials at the healthcare exchange board in the state encouraged insurers to expand their network options.
While the Mayo Clinic will now be available on seven different plans offered by two different insurance carriers in Rochester, Ms Harrington says the long-term concern for the hospital is that intense focus on bringing down costs will hurt “centres of excellence” like Mayo that attract the most complicated medical cases in the country.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that a significant portion of the Mayo base are very sick patients. You don’t come here for primary care. We do treat the sickest of the sick. We do experimental treatment. This is where you come for innovative treatments for life threatening illnesses,” she says.
“If healthcare, the full spectrum from primary to top speciality care, becomes commoditised, it becomes a concern for the American healthcare system,” she adds.
When the Obama administration was asked whether the new healthcare exchanges were offering adequate network options to new consumers, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) emphasised that the new exchanges would “vastly increase” the access to medical providers to millions of uninsured Americans.
“Decisions about which private health insurance plans cover which doctors is a decision currently made by insurers and providers and will continue that way,” said an HHS spokeswoman.
The top lobby group for US health insurance plans, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said the new healthcare law brought “new costs” to the industry and that selecting hospitals and physicians that meet “quality standards” was one way of making health plans more affordable for consumers.
But Mr Priselac at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles says the creation of ever more narrow provider networks by insurers is being driven by price alone, and not by quality. He says the hospitals that are being excluded are leaders in innovation, which saves billions of dollars for the healthcare system in the long run.
“There is confusion between price and efficiency,” he says. “The major teaching and research hospitals are more expensive not because they are inefficient but because of what they do.”
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Berkeley Chairs Letter in Support of Increased Graduate Student Support
Dear Dean Szeri:
As the new academic year begins, we have had time to reflect on the admissions process that has yielded this year’s new crop of Ph.D. students. While many Berkeley departments are at the top of the national rankings, we must continue to recruit the very best graduate students to maintain our rankings. Yet the competitiveness of our highly ranked Ph.D. programs greatly depends upon the level of graduate student stipends we can offer; in this regard we have increasingly fallen behind our peer institutions. According to the most recent UCOP Graduate Student Support Survey, the gap between UC stipend offers for years one and two and those from ‘top-choice’ peer institutions grew between 2007 and 2010 to $2,697 and together with the higher cost of living at UC institutions created a total deficit of $4,978. When surveyed, prospective graduate students consistently praise UC’s academic resources but admit being driven elsewhere by the higher cost of living and lower levels of financial support (http://www.ucop.edu/student- affairs/_files/gradsurvey_ 2010.pdf).
Since these figures reflect UC as a whole, and also date from 2010,
the current gap between Berkeley campus and our rival institutions may
well be even higher. The Report of the Taskforce on Competitiveness in Academic Graduate
Student Support, adopted by UC Academic Council in June 2012,
declares “rising tuition and uncompetitive stipends threaten to seriously
undermine program quality” and asks that additional resources be allocated
for net stipends for academic doctoral support ( CAGSSGradCompetitivenessPaper_ 072012.pdf).
The GSI wage in particular is so low that our students often take more than one outside job to make ends meet in a high cost-of-living area, thereby retarding their time to degree, on which there are now normative, consequential caps. Currently the 10 month (49.5%) GSI stipend is $17,655 for an incoming student, though our campus financial aid office estimates that $21,608 is required to cover the cost of living for 9 months (http://students.berkeley.edu/ finaid/home/cost.htm)
while the campus desired target for doctoral students is $26,000. Our
best students may come in with fellowships, but their income drastically
falls as soon as they start teaching to levels that are sometimes nearly half
that being provided at our rival private institutions. Greater consciousness
of debt burdens and unfavorable academic job futures mean that talented
Ph.D. students today are less and less willing to choose a school they
may intellectually prefer over a school that provides more economic
security. In order to keep attracting the best students, therefore,
departments increasingly resort to topping up students' support during
their teaching years by tapping the department’s own limited funds,
which include the Graduate Division’s block grant award. If not for
this practice of topping up, the reported gap between UC stipend offers
and other top institutions cited in the UCOP Graduate Student Support
Survey would be far greater. However, without a higher GSI base wage,
departments have to finance graduate programs through scarce and unpredictable
resources, which may, for some departments, be unsustainable in the
long run.
The recruitment of the best students has become increasingly difficult given our financial disadvantage, and we are already worried about the next season. We believe higher GSI wages, along with a commensurate increase in TAS funds to cover increased salaries, will help to level the playing field, and cease to disadvantage our departments. We hope that Berkeley campus will be able to communicate to UCOP the importance of this issue to our academic distinction.
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Berry
Chair, Anthropology
Steven Boggs
Chair, Physics
Benjamin Brinner
Chair, Music
Catherine Ceniza Choy
Chair, Ethnic Studies
Catherine Cole
Chair, Theater, Dance and Performance Studies
Marianne Constable
Chair, Rhetoric
Mark A. Csikszentmihalyi
East Asian Languages and Cultures
Penelope Edwards
Chair, South and Southeast Asian Studies
John Ferrari,
Chair, Classics
Deniz Gokturk
Chair, German
Joshua Goldstein
Chair, Demography
Richard Harland and David H. Raulet
Co-Chairs, Molecular and Cell Biology
John P. Huelsenbeck
Chair, Integrative Biology
Rich Ivry
Chair, Psychology
Phil Kaminsky
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
Margaret Larkin
Chair, Department of Near Eastern Studies
John MacFarlane
Chair, Philosophy
Samer Madanat
Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Na’ilah Suad Nasir,
Chair, African American Studies
Ignacio Navarrete,
Chair, Spanish & Portuguese
Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe
Chair, English
Arthur Ogus,
Chair, Mathematics
James L. Powell
Chair, Economics
Raka Ray
Chair, Sociology
Juana Maria Rodriguez
Chair, Gender and Women’s Studies
Mark Sandberg
Chair, Scandinavian
Miryam Sas
Chair, Comparative Literature
Nathan Sayre
Chair, Geography
Eric Schickler
Chair, Political Science
Ethan Shagan,
Chair, History
Philip B. Stark
Chair, Statistics
Kristen Whissel
Chair, Film and Media
Hertha D. Sweet Wong
Chair, Art Practice
cc. Chancellor Nicholas Dirks
EVCP George Breslauer
As the new academic year begins, we have had time to reflect on the admissions process that has yielded this year’s new crop of Ph.D. students. While many Berkeley departments are at the top of the national rankings, we must continue to recruit the very best graduate students to maintain our rankings. Yet the competitiveness of our highly ranked Ph.D. programs greatly depends upon the level of graduate student stipends we can offer; in this regard we have increasingly fallen behind our peer institutions. According to the most recent UCOP Graduate Student Support Survey, the gap between UC stipend offers for years one and two and those from ‘top-choice’ peer institutions grew between 2007 and 2010 to $2,697 and together with the higher cost of living at UC institutions created a total deficit of $4,978. When surveyed, prospective graduate students consistently praise UC’s academic resources but admit being driven elsewhere by the higher cost of living and lower levels of financial support (http://www.ucop.edu/student-
The GSI wage in particular is so low that our students often take more than one outside job to make ends meet in a high cost-of-living area, thereby retarding their time to degree, on which there are now normative, consequential caps. Currently the 10 month (49.5%) GSI stipend is $17,655 for an incoming student, though our campus financial aid office estimates that $21,608 is required to cover the cost of living for 9 months (http://students.berkeley.edu/
The recruitment of the best students has become increasingly difficult given our financial disadvantage, and we are already worried about the next season. We believe higher GSI wages, along with a commensurate increase in TAS funds to cover increased salaries, will help to level the playing field, and cease to disadvantage our departments. We hope that Berkeley campus will be able to communicate to UCOP the importance of this issue to our academic distinction.
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Berry
Chair, Anthropology
Steven Boggs
Chair, Physics
Benjamin Brinner
Chair, Music
Catherine Ceniza Choy
Chair, Ethnic Studies
Catherine Cole
Chair, Theater, Dance and Performance Studies
Marianne Constable
Chair, Rhetoric
Mark A. Csikszentmihalyi
East Asian Languages and Cultures
Penelope Edwards
Chair, South and Southeast Asian Studies
John Ferrari,
Chair, Classics
Deniz Gokturk
Chair, German
Joshua Goldstein
Chair, Demography
Richard Harland and David H. Raulet
Co-Chairs, Molecular and Cell Biology
John P. Huelsenbeck
Chair, Integrative Biology
Rich Ivry
Chair, Psychology
Phil Kaminsky
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
Margaret Larkin
Chair, Department of Near Eastern Studies
John MacFarlane
Chair, Philosophy
Samer Madanat
Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Na’ilah Suad Nasir,
Chair, African American Studies
Ignacio Navarrete,
Chair, Spanish & Portuguese
Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe
Chair, English
Arthur Ogus,
Chair, Mathematics
James L. Powell
Chair, Economics
Raka Ray
Chair, Sociology
Juana Maria Rodriguez
Chair, Gender and Women’s Studies
Mark Sandberg
Chair, Scandinavian
Miryam Sas
Chair, Comparative Literature
Nathan Sayre
Chair, Geography
Eric Schickler
Chair, Political Science
Ethan Shagan,
Chair, History
Philip B. Stark
Chair, Statistics
Kristen Whissel
Chair, Film and Media
Hertha D. Sweet Wong
Chair, Art Practice
cc. Chancellor Nicholas Dirks
EVCP George Breslauer
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
SB520--April 25, 2013 Version
Amended IN Senate April 25, 2013 |
Amended IN Senate April 17, 2013 |
Amended IN Senate April 01, 2013 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2013–2014 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill | No. 520 |
Introduced by Senator Steinberg (Principal Coauthor(s): Assembly Member Garcia) |
February 21, 2013 |
An act to amend Sections 78910.10 and 78910.30 of, and to add Section
66409.3 to, the Education Code, relating to student instruction.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 520, as amended, Steinberg.
Student instruction: California Online Student Access Platform.
(1) The
Donahoe Higher Education Act authorizes the activities of the 4
segments of the postsecondary education system in the state. These
segments include the 3 public postsecondary segments: the University of
California, administered by the Regents of the University of California,
the California State University, administered by the Trustees of the
California State University, and the California Community Colleges,
administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges. Private and independent postsecondary educational institutions
constitute the other segment.
Provisions
of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of
California only to the extent that the regents act, by resolution, to
make them applicable.
This bill
would establish the
California Online Student Access Platform under the administration
of the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the
California State University, and the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges, jointly, with the academic senates of the respective
segments. The bill would require the platform, among other things, to
provide an efficient statewide mechanism for online course providers to
offer transferable courses for credit and to create a pool of these
online courses. The bill would require the President of the University
of California, the Chancellor of the California State University, and
the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, jointly, with the
academic senates of the respective segments, to develop a list of the 50
most impacted lower division courses, as defined, at the University of
California, the California State University, and the California
Community Colleges that are deemed necessary for program completion, or
deemed satisfactory for meeting general education requirements, or
in areas defined as high-demand transferable lower division courses
under the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum and, for each of those 50 courses, to promote the availability of multiple high-quality.
For these causes, the bill would require the president, chancellors,
and senates to jointly facilitate certain intersegmental and
intrasegmental partnerships and partnerships between online course
technology providers and faculty of the University of California, the
California State University, and the California Community Colleges, as a
method to achieve the goal of significantly increasing online course options, as specified
options for students for the fall term of the 2014—15 academic year.
The bill would require the online courses approved
by the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the
California State University, and the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges, jointly, with the academic senates of the respective
segments, under the bill
through the platform to be placed in the California
Virtual Campus. The bill would require that matriculated students of
campuses of the University of California, California State University,
or California Community Colleges, and California high school pupils, who
complete online courses developed through the platform and achieve a
passing score on corresponding course examinations, be awarded full
academic credit for an equivalent course at the University of
California, the California State University, or the California Community
Colleges, as applicable.
The bill
would provide that funding for the implementation of this provision
would be provided in the annual Budget Act, and express the intent of
the Legislature that the receipt of funding by the University of
California for the implementation of this provision be contingent on its
compliance with its requirements. Because
The
bill would prohibit public funds from being used to fund any private
aspect of a partnership developed under the bill between faculty of the
University of California, California State University, or the California
Community Colleges and an online course technology provider. This bill
would provide that the state would retain all appropriate rights to
intellectual property it creates or develops in the implementation of
the bill.
Because this
provision would require community colleges to award academic credit
under these circumstances, it would constitute a state-mandated local
program.
(2) Existing law, until January 1, 2014, establishes the California
Virtual Campus to facilitate ongoing collaboration and joint efforts
relating to the use of technology resources and high-speed Internet
connectivity to support teaching, learning, workforce development, and
research. Existing law, until January 1, 2014, authorizes the California
Virtual Campus grant recipient to convene at least 4 leadership
stakeholder group meetings annually comprised of representatives from
the State Department of Education, the California Technology Assistance
Project, and other related programs administered through the department,
including adult education, local education agencies, the California
Community Colleges, the California State University, the University of
California, independent colleges and universities, the California State
Library, and representatives from community-based organizations to
ensure the efforts affecting segments represented are appropriately
meeting the needs of those
segments.
This bill would
extend the provisions establishing the California Virtual Campus until
January 1, 2017. This bill would require the representatives in the
stakeholder group meetings from the California Community Colleges, the
California State University, and the University of California to
include, but not be limited to, faculty members from these institutions.
This bill would make additional nonsubstantive changes in these
provisions. By requiring faculty members from community college
districts to attend these meetings, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
(3) The
California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies
and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory
provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This
bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines
that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for
those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) In
recent years, California’s public higher education institutions have
faced skyrocketing demand for enrollment at a time when they lack
capacity to provide students with access to courses necessary for
program completion and success.
(b) In
the 2012–13 academic year, 85 percent of California Community Colleges
(CCC) reported having waiting lists for their fall 2012 course sections,
with a statewide average of more than
7,000 students on waiting lists per college.
(c) Similarly,
impacted courses have contributed significantly to difficulties within
the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU)
systems, with figures indicating that only 60 percent and 16 percent of
students, respectively, are able to earn a degree within four years,
with lack of access to key courses a factor in increased time-to-degree.
(d) With
rapidly developing innovation in online course delivery models,
California’s public institutions of higher education have a unique
opportunity to meet critical demands for enrollment and reduce
time-to-degree by providing students with access to high-quality,
alternative, online pathways to successfully complete and obtain credit
for the most impacted lower
division courses.
(e) California
could significantly benefit from a statutorily enacted, quality-first,
faculty-led framework that increases partnerships between faculty and
online course technology providers aimed at allowing students in
strategically selected lower division areas to take online courses for
credit at the UC, CSU, and CCC systems. While providing easy access to
these courses, these systems could also continually assess the value of
the courses and the rates of student success in utilizing these
alternative online pathways.
SEC. 2.
Section 66409.3 is added to the Education Code, to read:66409.3.
(a) The California Online Student Access Platformis hereby established. The platform shall be developed and administered by the President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the California State University, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, jointly, with the academic senates of the respective segments. As used in this section, “platform” means the California Online Student Access Platform established by this section.
(b) The platform shall solicit, develop, and promote facilitate
appropriate partnerships including,
but not necessarily limited to, intersegmental and intrasegmental
partnerships developed pursuant to Section 66950 and partnerships between
online course providers and faculty members of the University of
California, California State University, and the California Community
Colleges for the development and deployment of high-quality online
options for strategically selected lower division courses. The platform
shall accomplish all of the following objectives:
(1) Provide an efficient statewide mechanism for online course providers, in partnership with
facilitation of intersegmental and intrasegmental partnerships
developed pursuant to Section 66950 and appropriate partnerships between
faculty members of the University of California, the California State University, and the California
Community Colleges, and online course technology providers to offer transferable courses for credit.
(2) Create a pool of up to 50
approved and transferable online courses for credit through which
students seeking to enroll may easily access those courses and related
content.
(3) Provide a state-level
faculty-led process that places the highest priority on educational
quality through which online courses can be subjected to high-quality
standards and review.
(4) Allow the state, the public, students, faculty, and other stakeholders to examine student success rates within the platform.
(c) For
purposes of accomplishing all of the objectives of the platform as
specified in subdivision (b), the
President of the University of California, the Chancellor of the
California State University, and the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges, jointly, with the academic senates of the respective
segments, shall do all of the following:
(1) (A) Develop
a list of the 50 most impacted lower division courses at the University
of California, the California State University, and the California
Community Colleges that are deemed necessary for program completion , or deemed satisfactory for meeting general education
requirements, or
in areas defined as high-demand transferable lower division courses
under the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum.
(B) For
purposes of this paragraph, “impacted lower division course” means a
course in which, during most academic terms, the number of students
seeking to enroll in the course exceeds the number of spaces available
in the course.
(2) (A)For each of the 50 courses For any of the courses that meet the
criteria identified under paragraph (1), solicit and promote
appropriate
facilitate partnerships, including, but not necessarily limited to,
intersegmental and intrasegmental partnerships developed pursuant to
Section 66950 and partnerships between online course technology providers and faculty of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges which, by with the goal of significantly increasing online course options for students for the fall term of the 2014–15 academic
year, shall result in the availability of multiple high-quality online
course options in which students may enroll in that term.
year.
(3) Create and administer a standardized review and approval process for online courses in which most or all course instruction is delivered online developed
pursuant to paragraph (2) for matriculated students of the University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges, or and
for California high school pupils. No course shall be approved for
purposes of this section unless the course has associated with it a
faculty sponsor who is a member of the faculty of the University of
California, the California State University, or the California Community
Colleges and is approved by the academic senate of the appropriate segment.
An online course developed pursuant to this paragraph shall be
deemed to meet the lower division transfer and degree requirements for
the University of California, the California State University, and the
California Community Colleges.
(4) When online courses are reviewed pursuant to this section, at a
minimum, the extent to which each course does the following shall be
considered:
(A) Provides students with instructional support and related services to promote retention and success.
(B) Provides students with interaction with instructors and other students.
(C) Contains a proctored student assessment and examination process that
ensures academic integrity and satisfactorily measures student learning.
(D) Provides
a student with an opportunity to assess the extent to which he or she
is suited for online learning prior to enrolling.
(E) Utilizes,
as the primary course text or as a wholly acceptable alternative,
content, where it exists, from the California Digital Open Source
Library established pursuant to Section 66408.
(F) Includes
adaptive learning technology systems or comparable technologies that
can provide significant improvement in the learning of students.
(5) Regularly solicit and consider
solicits from each of the respective statewide student
associations of the University of California, the California State
University, and the California Community Colleges, and considers, advice and guidance on implementation of the platform.
(6) Collect,
review, and make public data and other information related to student
success within the platform by gathering and reporting data on accepted
student success metrics, including, but not necessarily limited to,
student enrollment in approved online courses through the platform, and
student retention and completion rates.
(7) Utilize the state’s current common course numbering system for approved
courses so as to simplify the identification and articulation of comparable courses.
(d) Online courses approved
through the platform pursuant to this section shall be placed in
the California Virtual Campus, through which students may access the
courses. A matriculated student of a campus of the University of
California, California State University, or California Community
Colleges, or a California high school pupil, who completes an online
course
developed through the platform and achieves a passing score on the
corresponding course examination shall be awarded full academic credit
for an equivalent course at the University of California, the California
State University, or the California Community Colleges, as applicable.
(e) Funding
for the implementation of this section shall be provided in the annual
Budget Act. It is the intent of the Legislature that, notwithstanding
Section 67400, the receipt of funding by the University of California
for the implementation of this section be contingent on its compliance
with the requirements of this section.
(f) No
public funds shall be used to fund any private aspect of a partnership
developed pursuant
to this section between faculty of the University of California,
the California State University, or the California Community Colleges
and an online course technology provider.
(g) The
state shall retain all appropriate rights to intellectual property it
creates or develops in the implementation of this section.
SEC. 3.
Section 78910.10 of the Education Code is amended to read:78910.10.
(a) (1) The California Virtual Campus, pursuant to funding provided to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges for this purpose in the annual Budget Act, may pursue all of the following purposes, to the extent funding is available:
(A) To
enrich formal and informal educational experiences and improve students’
academic performance by supporting the development of highly engaging,
research-based innovations in teaching and learning in K–12 public
schools and the California Community Colleges, the California State
University, and the University of California.
(B) To
enhance
the awareness of, and access to, highly engaging online courses of
study, emphasizing courses of study that support a diverse and highly
skilled science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce.
(C) To
support education research, the implementation of research-based
practices, and promote economic development through the use of next
generation advanced network infrastructure, services, and network
technologies that enable collaboration and resource sharing between
formal and informal educators in K–12 public schools, the California
Community Colleges, the California State University, the University of
California, independent colleges and universities, public libraries, and
community-based organizations at locations across the state.
(D) To
increase access to next
generation Internet services, 21st century workforce development
programs, and e-government services for students and staff served or
employed by education entities and students served primarily online
through partnerships with public libraries and community-based
organizations.
(E) To enhance access to health care education and training programs to current or future health care workers.
(F) To
manage digital assets and develop contracts for services necessary to
provide the technical and management support needed to maximize the
benefits of the high-speed, high-bandwidth network infrastructure
available to public higher education entities in California.
(G) Through
the aggregation of demand for network enabled technologies
and related services from public education entities, and through
partnerships with the private sector, to provide education entities with
access to technical support and staff who can facilitate statewide
efforts that support innovations in teaching and learning that are
necessary to provide for a well-educated citizenry, and economic and
21st century workforce development.
(2) To
accomplish the purposes of paragraph (1), the California Virtual Campus
may partner with local educational agencies, the State Department of
Education, the 11 regional California Technology Assistance Projects,
the California Community Colleges, the California State University, the
University of California, independent colleges and universities, public
libraries, and community-based organizations to facilitate ongoing
collaboration and joint efforts relating to the
use of technology resources and high-speed Internet connectivity
to support teaching, learning, workforce development, and research.
(3) Efforts
conducted as a result of this chapter shall not prohibit or otherwise
exclude the ability of existing or new educational technology programs
from being developed, expanded, or
enhanced.
(b) For purposes of this article, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Online courses of study” means any of the following:
(A) Online
teaching, learning, and research resources, including, but not
necessarily limited to, books, course materials, video materials,
interactive lessons, tests, or software, the copyrights of which have
expired, or have been released with an intellectual property license
that permits their free use or repurposing by others without the
permission of the original authors or creators of the learning materials
or resources.
(B) Professional development opportunities for formal and informal
educators who desire to use the resources in subparagraph (A).
(C) Online instruction.
(2) “Online
instruction” means technology enabled online real time (synchronous)
interaction between the instructor and the student, near time
(asynchronous) interaction between the instructor and the student, or
any combination thereof.
(c) The California Virtual Campus grant recipient may accomplish all of the following:
(1) Convene
at least four leadership stakeholder group meetings annually composed
of representatives from the State Department of Education, the
California Technology Assistance Project, and other related programs
administered through the department,
including adult education, local education agencies, the
California Community Colleges, the California State University, the
University of California, independent colleges and universities, the
California State Library, and representatives from community-based
organizations to ensure the efforts affecting segments represented are
appropriately meeting the needs of those segments. The leadership
stakeholder group shall also coordinate and obtain assistance with the
implementation of efforts delineated in this article, to identify and
maintain an up-to-date list of the technology resources and tools that
are necessary to support innovation in teaching and learning, and to
identify opportunities for leveraging resources and expertise for
meeting those needs in an efficient and cost-effective manner. For
purposes of this paragraph, the representatives from the California
Community Colleges,
the California State University, and the University of California
shall include, but not be limited to, faculty members from these
institutions.
(2) Lead efforts to make online courses of study available across the state that include, but are not limited to, the following:
(A) Developing
online courses of study that are pedagogically sound and fully
accessible, in compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities
Act (Public Law 101-336), by students with varying learning styles and
disabilities.
(i) The development of
K–12 online courses pursuant to this subparagraph shall be achieved in
partnership with local education agencies and the California Technology
Assistance Project.
(ii) Online
courses developed for grades K–12 pursuant to this subparagraph shall be
aligned to the California academic content standards and guidelines for
online courses.
(B) Overseeing the
development of at least 12 model online courses of study that,
collectively, would allow students to meet the requirements of the
Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) and at
least two courses that support basic skills education courses in
English, English as a second language, or mathematics.
(C) Encouraging the entities listed in paragraph (1) to do both of the following:
(i) Make accessible to each other their courses of study that are funded by the state.
(ii) Allow
their courses of study to be accessible to the general public if they
determine access would not inhibit their ability to provide appropriate
protection of the state’s intellectual property rights.
(3) Ensure
that the learning objects created as part of the California Virtual
Campus online courses of study with state General Fund revenues are
linked to digital content libraries that include information about
course content freely available to California educators and students.
(4) Develop
formal partnership agreements between the entities listed in paragraph
(1) and the California Virtual Campus, including course articulation
agreements that allow qualified high school students to accelerate the
completion of requirements for a high school diploma and a
two-year or four-year degree and agreements that provide
opportunities for part-time faculty teaching online to obtain full-time
employment teaching online.
(5) Develop
formal partnership agreements with the entities listed in paragraph (1)
and others to enhance access to professional development courses that
introduce faculty, teachers, staff, and college course developers to the
conceptual development, creation, and production methodologies that
underlie the development of online courses of study and support
students’ successful completion of those courses. The professional
development opportunities may include, but not necessarily be limited
to, all of the following:
(A) Addressing issues relating to copyright, permission for the use or reuse of material, use of resources in the
public domain, and other intellectual property concepts.
(B) Accessibility for students with disabilities.
(C) Factors to ensure that content is culturally relevant to a diverse student body.
(D) Delivery options that incorporate multiple learning styles and strategies.
(6) Develop
formal partnership agreements with entities, including, but not limited
to, those listed in paragraph (1), to ensure access to online
professional learning communities that incorporate the use of
Internet-based collaboration tools and to support joint discussions
between K–12 educators, higher education faculty and staff, and others
to examine student performance data, student learning
objectives, curriculum, and other issues that relate to students’
academic success and preparation for the workforce.
(7) In
partnership with entities, including those listed in paragraph (1),
develop an e-portfolio system that allows participating students to
demonstrate their attainment of academic learning objectives, skills and
knowledge that relate to their career interests, and completion of
prerequisites for participation in courses or training programs. The
e-portfolio system may do all of the following:
(A) Ensure that student privacy is protected in accordance with existing law.
(B) Comply with accessibility laws for students with disabilities.
(C) Be
designed in a manner that supports the use of e-portfolio content in
the accreditation requirements of schools, colleges, and universities.
(8) In
partnership with entities, including those listed in paragraph (1),
identify opportunities to enhance students’ access to medical education
and medical services through the use of high-speed Internet connections
to the campuses, and opportunities for education programs and services
to support the telehealth efforts taking place within the state.
(d) The
lead agency for the California Virtual Campus, in consultation with the
leadership stakeholder group described in paragraph (1) of subdivision
(c) if that group is convened by the California Virtual Campus grant
recipient, shall contract with an independent third
party with expertise in online teaching, learning, and the
development of online courses of study, as approved by the board, to
evaluate the California Virtual Campus. The evaluation shall include,
but not be limited to, an assessment of the number of faculty, teachers,
consortia, informal educators, and students that use the online courses
of study, the quality of students’ experiences, student grades earned,
and the cost of the online course content, comparing the online course
content with traditional textbooks. The board may require additional
information that it determines to be necessary to evaluate the
effectiveness and viability of the California Virtual Campus. This
evaluation shall be submitted to the Legislature no later than three
years after the enactment of this act.
SEC. 4.
Section 78910.30 of the Education Code is amended to read:78910.30.
This article shall remain in effect until January 1, 2017, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2017, deletes or extends that date.SEC. 5.
If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
Brown's Higher Ed Framework (April, 2013)
Governor’s
Higher Education Plan
Overview
Statement
of Problem
There are
multiple signs that our higher education system is facing a crisis.
- At UC, costs are rising much faster than inflation.
- At CSU, few students are graduating in four years.
- In CCCs, thousands are turned away and relatively few are making it through a complete
- program of study or successfully transferring.
- Overall, there is no systemwide consensus regarding higher education’s purpose, goals, and overall direction.
Financially,
the state isn’t out of the woods yet.
- The Governor’s budget prioritizes higher education. Many other services have also faced big cuts in recent years and will see no increases this year. We need to make the most of every higher education dollar we spend.
- Everyone must do their part: taxpayers, students, and university officials who need to find solutions other than tuition increases to balance their budgets.
Student
tuition should not be the go-to budget balancer.
- Student aid doesn’t fix the problem: it helps individual students but masks the underlying problem of higher education costs that are rising too fast.
- Every tuition increase reduces access and increases student debt. It’s also a quality issue when it disrupts students’ progress or forces them to work more while they go to school.
- Tuition hikes also hurt middle class students who didn’t expect the increase and don’t qualify for much aid.
Governor’s
goals for higher education
- Improve quality and performance of the system. Students who want to complete college in four years should be able to do so. College education should be relevant to students and enable them to thrive in their career and life after graduation.
- Reinvent higher education system for today’s world and the future. We can’t simply maintain the 20th century university
o Fiscal
realities limit all of us, but it’s our creativity that allows us to adapt to
and thrive
within our limits. Universities are extraordinarily resilient institutions, because they
are full of smart people. We’re excited about the challenge and promise of
building a 21st century
university.
- Control
the cost of higher education so that it stays affordable for students and the
state. Yes, the
Governor realizes that California’s
tuition and student debt levels are not as high as those in
other states. His aim is to:o Provide
students some relief after back-to-back years of tuition increases
o Stop using student tuition to prop up an unsustainable business model
o Avoid the sky-high debt and tuition levels found in others states
Basic
elements of the plan:
- Up to a 20% increase in General Fund appropriations to UC and CSU over a four-year period (2013-14 through 2016-17), representing about a 10% increase in total operating funds.*
- Freeze on UC and CSU resident tuition from 2013-14 to 2016-17. If a segment raises tuition during any of those years, its cumulative funding augmentation beginning in 2013-14 will be forfeited and cannot be earned back.
- For UC and CSU, funding augmentations will be contingent on progress made toward the following goals. (Note: the latest values for the performance measures will be updated this fall to reflect actual 2011-12 values, which will serve as the base year):
o Ten
percent improvement of on-time graduation rates by 2016-17 (meaning 4 years for
freshmen and 2 years for transfer students).
- For UC freshmen, an increase from about 62 to about 68%.
- For CSU freshmen, an increase from about 16 to about 18%.
- For UC transfers, an increase from about 53 to about 59%.
- For CSU transfers, an increase from about 23 to about 26%.
o Ten
percent increase in the number of transfer students UC and CSU enroll from the
community colleges by 2016-17.
- At UC, an increase from about 15,800 to about 17,400 annually.
- At CSU, an increase from about 37,200 to about 40,900 annually.
o Ten
percent increase in the number of degrees completed by 2016-17 for:
- First-time freshmen
- Transfer students
- Pell Grant recipients (both freshmen and transfers)
o Ten
percent improvement in undergraduate degree completions per 100 full-time
equivalent enrolled students by 2016-17, to capture improvements in efficiency.
- Flexibility
o If a
segment partially meets its targets, it will still receive a proportional share
of its planned
funding augmentation.
o
Additionally, segments can recoup any funding lost by missing an interim target
if they fully
meet a subsequent year’s target, up through 2016-17.
o Segments
will be expected to show 1%, 3%, and 6% improvement on each of the outcome
measures in the first three years of the plan, respectively, or the segments may
propose alternative interim measures and targets provided they can
show those
interim measures build to the same overall 10% targets in 2016-17.
- Universities will report annually on progress made toward the targets, biennially on spending on graduate versus undergraduate instruction and research, and on any additional measures that are deemed appropriate for tracking effects on educational quality and service to disadvantaged students.
*A note on
community colleges: CCCs will also receive commensurate funding increases over
the four
year term of the funding plan. Corresponding performance measures for CCCs will
be
developed
later this year and introduced in the Governor’s 2014-15 Budget proposal.
Anticipated
questions
What is
the rationale for the 10 percent improvement targets?
- The targets are set at 10 percent because universities’ operating funds (General Fund and tuition and fee revenue) will increase by about 10 percent. It provides a simple goal to unify the system.
- Certainly, some targets will be easier to hit than others – that is the rationale for multiple measures and pro-rated funding increases. Remember: a segment will be rewarded for any progress it makes toward any of the targets at any point during the timeframe of the plan.
- The performance targets we have set are high, but they are flexible and we feel they are completely achievable.
Universities
are trying to rebuild after years of cuts – why raise the bar now?
- It’s true that cuts have been severe, but the baseline year was the low point and follows a decade of volatile budgets.o If the measures are affected by the budget they should be at their worst in the baseline year, 2011-12.
- This
is exactly the right time to ask universities to raise the bar.o Taxpayers
voted to put more money into higher education.
o Rather than restoring the same costly structures that have proven unsustainable,the new money should go toward building a smarter university model that provides quality education and ongoing affordability.
UC and
CSU are different systems with different challenges – why the same outcome measures
and targets for both?
- Both segments need to improve their cost efficiency as an integral part of their ability toprovide a high-quality education without continually increasing the financial burden placed on students through tuition and fees.
- However,
UC and CSU have different challenges and will make progress in different ways.o CSU has
comparatively low spending per degree and completion, but needs to improve
completion rates. It can become more efficient by increasing its overall through-put
and reducing the number of excess units per degree completion.
o UC has comparatively strong completion rates but very high cost per degree and a steep rate of spending increases from year to year. It can become more efficient by holding tuition constant and findi ng other ways to balance its budget—namelyby reducing costs.
- Yes,
some targets will be easier or harder for each system to meet. However, we
believe that the
collection of targets—paired with the requirement to freeze tuition—will be comparably
challenging for the two systems.
- There are appropriate checks and balances in place to prevent an erosion of quality: academic senates, accreditation procedures, and feedback from students and employers have long been the universities’ approach to upholding quality.
- These existing quality-control measures should be refined and strengthened, rather than introducing standardized testing, artificial numeric indices, or other kinds of scores or rankings.
How can
UC and CSU control the number of transfers who are ready to enroll?
- UC and CSU are expected to work closely with CCCs to align lower and upper-division coursework and create clear transfer pathways for students that enable them to graduate on time, without accumulating excessive extra units.
- Funding increases for CCCs should lead to corresponding increases in the number of transfer-ready students.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Profile for a 21st Century Presidency at NYU
The American Association of University Professors is the
originator and steward of the basic principles of governance and academic
freedom observed by U.S. universities. Inspired by the Vote of No Confidence
process set in motion by NYU's Faculty of Arts and Science, we offer the
following list of requisites for a 21st century presidency at NYU.
New York University, as one of the nation’s leading universities,
needs a president who is deeply committed to
1.
The
Ethos and Practice of Shared Governance
and
who therefore supports
a. the
right and obligation of faculty to define and shape all new academic and
curricular initiatives, including those at global locations
b. the
right and obligation of faculty to be represented on the Board of Trustees
c. the
right and obligation of faculty to participate fully in the choosing of new presidents
and provosts
d. the
right and obligation of faculty to serve, as elected representatives, not as ad
hoc appointees, on top level committees
e. the
right and obligation of faculty to hold regular, plenary assemblies with the
president and senior administrators in order to voice concerns and present new
initiatives
f. the
right and obligation of faculty to have full knowledge of the fiscal affairs of
the university
g. the
right and obligation of faculty to review and participate in the approval of all
new building and expansion plans
h. the
right of faculty, should a majority so decide, to union representation and
collective bargaining
2.
The
Institutional Protections of Tenure and Academic Freedom for Faculty
and
who therefore supports
a.
the steady conversion of NTT into TT
faculty positions at every NYU location
b. the
extension of protections comparable to those that accrue to tenure to all
fulltime faculty who have served continuously for seven years,
c. the
upholding of academic freedom among all faculty, including those not on the
tenure track
d. the
careful protection of academic freedoms through contracts and intellectual
property regulations relating to commercialization of university research
3.
The Principle
of Making an NYU Education Affordable to All Students
and who therefore supports
and who therefore supports
a. the
right and obligation of student representatives to participate in a
university-wide plan to reduce the student debt burden by expanding needs-based
financial aid
b. the
right and obligation of students to be represented on the Board of Trustees
c. the
right and obligation of students to have full knowledge of the fiscal affairs
of the university
d. a
moratorium on the growth of non-academic personnel, offices, programs, and
costs that are extraneous to core academic functions.
4.
The Cultivation
of Mutually Respectful Town-Gown Relations
and who therefore supports
and who therefore supports
a. the
right and obligation of community representatives to review and participate in
the approval of all new building and expansion plans
b. the
right and obligation of community representatives to serve on a committee for
developing university-community initiatives that will benefit from NYU’s
research and resources
5.
The Abatement
of Salary Polarization
and
who therefore supports
a. the
reduction, by at least 25%, of the salaries of the president and senior
administrators
b. the
establishment of a more equitable range spread between the highest and lowest
paid of NYU employees
c. a
suspension of the practice of passing on the costs of benefits spending to
employees
6.
The
Upholding of Fair Labor Standards for All University Employees
and who therefore supports
and who therefore supports
a. the
right of all employees, including graduate student employees, should a majority
so decide, to union representation and collective bargaining.
b. the
right of employee union representatives to expect good faith in collective
bargaining from the NYU administration
c. the
right of all employees, including those contracted to construct and maintain
GNU buildings, to be protected by the ILO's basic international labor standards.
Andrew Ross,
NYU-AAUP president
Molly Nolan,
NYU-AAUP vice-president
Marie
Monaco, NYU-AAUP secretary
Anna
McCarthy, NYU-AAUP treasurer
Rebecca
Karl, NYU-AAUP at-large executive member
Rana Jaleel, NYU-AAUP student member
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