Overseas, many nations are investing heavily in higher education, steadily producing more college degrees among young adults and becoming more competitive in the global economy.
By comparison, we’re falling behind. Younger adults in Washington have, on average, less education than baby boomers. That startling fact threatens the prosperity our region has enjoyed for so long, and it must be reversed — before the rest of the world gains even more competitive ground.
That’s what a new 10-year master plan for higher education in Washington seeks to do. Released last week by the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board, a 10-member citizen board that provides strategic planning and other services for the state’s public colleges and universities, the master plan serves as a wake-up call that legislators should heed when they convene next month in Olympia.
Ominously, Washington is failing to make progress despite record demand for educated workers in all areas of employment. Workers are being imported to fill good paying local jobs, from skilled trades to professional fields — jobs our own young adults should be filling.
We can and must do better. The higher education master plan includes proposals for improving accountability, efficiency and coordination at all levels of the education system, reaching beyond college campuses for solutions. Part of its strategy is to significantly increase the number of students who complete high school on time and continue directly to more education — a four-year university, a community or technical college, an apprenticeship or certificate program. That means maintaining high expectations and providing the means for students to meet them. Specifically, the plan calls for better teacher preparation in math and science, and improving academic advising and counseling skills.
Funding, of course, must also improve. The master plan calls for increasing higher-education enrollment by 27 percent by 2018, an increase of almost 80,000 full-time students.
An important first step for lawmakers will be to fund the next big progression toward a University of Washington branch campus in underserved Snohomish County, including classes that can begin next fall. The academic plan for UW North fits perfectly into the HEC Board’s master plan, targeting degrees in high-demand fields.
Our state stands at a crossroads in the global economy, and the choices its leaders make in coming months will do much to influence our future prosperity. Higher education is fundamental to that.
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