Higher education office dismantled under budget plan

The office of higher education would be dismantled under a General Assembly-approved plan to merge the state’s educational governing boards. Education officials so far have said little publicly about the move that essentially reverses a state-mandated structure created 30 years ago.
Some observers question whether the merger, part of the fiscal 2013 budget, will justly serve both higher education and secondary education.
In the budget, the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education and the Rhode Island Board of Regents, which oversees elementary and secondary education, would be combined into one board with two commissioners.
“The boards are very different,” said Gary Sasse, director of Bryant University’s Institute for Public Leadership. “The board of regents is responsible [for regulating] our public school system. Higher Ed has a different mission. The board of governors [duty] is to set policy to be drivers of economic development.
“When you look at the breadth of responsibility, it’s difficult to see how one board can meet both sets of requirements,” Sasse continued. “We know from history that they can’t.”
Sasse was executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council when, in 1982, the state separated its umbrella educational board into two sectors.
That was done in part, according to Sasse, when it was decided higher education was being largely ignored under that structure.
The R.I. Board of Education is established under Article 4 of the budget and effective Jan. 1, 2013. The Board of Governors and the Board of Regents would cease to exist on that same date. The office of higher education would be abolished on July 1, 2014. Implementation of the new structure would be complete on Jan. 1, 2014.
The article outlines that “the separate higher education system in the state of Rhode Island has not capitalized on opportunities and resources that have been made available due in part to a lack of coordination and efficiencies with elementary and secondary education. … Establishing a seamless, singular board of education will promote coordination and increase efficiencies.” The budget article also states that the legislature feels combining the two boards will help in “efforts towards eliminating the skills gap to ensure the state is competitive and the workforce is a marketable asset.”
The article does not determine whether Higher Education Acting Commissioner Ray Di Pasquale or Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist will continue in their positions.
Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee in his budget proposal had proposed combining the Higher Education Assistance Authority with the board of governors. The House Finance Committee rejected that proposal in favor of Article 4.
“There are 18 months [to implement the change],” said Chris Hunsinger, director of legislative affairs for the governor’s office. “The governor looks forward to working with the legislature in determining the best structure and ensuring that students throughout Rhode Island receive the best education possible.”
The board of governors has had little to say on the matter.
Mike Trainor, spokesman for the board of governors, issued the following statement and declined further comment: “The board and the commissioner pledge their best efforts to work on [an] effective transition to the new governance structure.”
Di Pasquale, who is acting commissioner and president of the Community College of Rhode Island, became the first person ever to hold both titles in 2009. He declined comment through the college’s public relations office.
The budget article does outline that the presidents of CCRI, the University of Rhode Island and the president of Rhode Island College would comprise the new board’s executive committee of education.
URI President David M. Dooley and RIC President Nancy Carriulo did not immediately return calls seeking comment. In 2003, the Rhode Island Department of Education and its board initiated what it called “a sweeping high school reform initiative” that included, over the years, implementing new graduation requirements, including a senior project and requirement that students reach “partial proficiency” in reading and math on the state assessment.
It also provided that diploma-granting authority could be suspended, beginning in 2012, for school districts that reach full Diploma System approval from the department.
The board reports that the reform has helped, between 2005 and 2010, increase the state’s retention and graduation rates but that state math-assessment performance has been “largely stagnant” and that in 2010, over 60 percent of recent high school graduates enrolled at CCRI were placed in remedial courses and that most of those students would not likely earn a college degree.
Commissioner Gist said in a statement that she and her office “stand ready to work with Chafee and his staff and to provide support during the process of organizing a new Board of Education.”
The new board will have 11 members. There are 13 members now on the board of governors and nine on the board of regents. Two members of the latter, Chairman George D. Carulo who represents the regents on the governors board, and Lorne A. Adrain, who serves as board of governors chair, serve on both.
Under the article, the Board of Education would submit by July 1, 2013 a plan to the governor and General Assembly for “the permanent administrative structure for higher education.”
The new board also will appoint a commissioner of elementary and secondary education, as well as a commissioner of higher education.
The statutory responsibilities of the R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education shall remain unchanged under the new plan. •

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