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Herald-Leader
September 18, 2003
Record enrollment at KCTCS
Part-time, younger students drive up system's numbers
Part-time students have helped push enrollment in the Kentucky Community and
Technical College System to a record 71,000 students this year.
Full-time enrollment at the 19 colleges has remained steady, but the number
of part-time students increased more than eight percent at the campuses, officials
said.
Total enrollment increased 4.8 percent this year from 67,812 last November.
The increase has occurred after the majority of community colleges and technical
schools have merged. Students are no longer forced to choose between the two
schools; they can pick from either, officials said. Students also have better
geographic access to classes.
College or technical courses are also becoming more popular with younger students.
"We've taken on a lot of dual-credit people -- mostly students taking
technical courses through the high school or enrolling in college courses with
the high school," said Karin Gibson, registrar for Southeast Community
College.
At Southeast, which has five campuses in Bell, Harlan and Letcher counties,
enrollment grew from 3,709 last year to an estimated 4,178. Of those students,
1,124 are high-schoolers, said KCTCS Chancellor Keith Bird.
Southeast's "Explore College" program allows high school students
to sign up for dual-credit classes as does a similar program at Owensboro Community
and Technical College. This year, there are 1,173 high school students taking
classes through Owensboro, Bird said. The programs serve as models for other
colleges.
Although enrollment at most of the colleges is growing, the number of students
is not expected to increase at Elizabethtown Community, Elizabethtown Technical
or Hazard Community colleges, according to KCTCS.
Community and technical college enrollment is reported as an estimate of full
and part-time students taking classes Nov. 1, Bird said. The numbers may exclude
students who enroll for later classes.
"We are a very dynamic institution," he said. "We offer courses
at different times in the semester, eight-week courses, 12-week courses, six-week
courses. ... We enroll students all year round." Classes are also offered
nights and weekends, appealing to working adults, he said.
Continuing enrollment increases are no surprise to Bird, who cited greater
access to the colleges -- geographically, virtually and through flexibility
of class times -- as the major reason for growth.
"We're the access point for higher education," he said. "We
have grown so many ways to provide access."
In 1998, there were 50 community and technical college campuses statewide;
within the year the number will reach 62, he said.
That expansion is a result of the state education reform act of 1997, which
separated 13 community colleges from the University of Kentucky and is merging
community colleges and technical colleges into single entities, Bird said.
Increasing the number of facilities has played a large part in the 56 percent
climb in enrollment since 1998, Bird said. Community and technical college students
also account for a substantial portion of enrollment in Kentucky's Virtual University,
which offers online classes.
Business First
September 17, 2003
KCTCS schools expect record enrollment for fall semester
Fall enrollment at schools in the Kentucky Community and Technical College
System will top 70,000 for the first time ever, with an estimated 71,061 enrolling
to take classes at community and technical colleges across the state.
The estimate includes 13,570 students enrolled in classes at five campuses
that are part of the Jefferson Community and Technical College District, which
includes Jefferson Community College. Enrollment in the district is up by 500
students from last year.
The statewide enrollment estimate for the fall beats last year's record of
67,812 full- and part-time students enrolled in credit programs, according to
a news release.
The enrollment estimate includes students already in classes as well as those
who will enroll in course sections that will open in the coming weeks, the release
said. The final enrollment will be reported in early November. In each of the
past two years, the final enrollment has exceeded the September estimate, the
release said.
Michael B. McCall, president of the system, said in the release that the enrollment
increase is a result of several factors, including colleges sharing information
on practices such as marketing and recruitment plans, colleges working to enroll
high school students in college courses and higher enrollments of part-time
students.
Courier-Journal
September 18, 2003
Education council sues state
School leaders say spending is inadequate
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Council for Better Education, whose 1985 lawsuit
resulted in sweeping education reform in Kentucky, is suing again, accusing
the legislature of inadequately funding public schools.
The coalition of 164 school districts filed suit yesterday in Franklin Circuit
Court against Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, and House Speaker
Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green.
"We as educators have done our best to provide the best possible education
for Kentucky's children within the resources provided by the General Assembly.
But the sad fact of the matter is that the General Assembly has not lived up
to its constitutional mandate," Blake Haselton, the council's interim president
and superintendent of Oldham County schools, said at a news conference at the
Capitol. "We have no choice but to ask the courts to intervene so no child
is left behind in Kentucky."
Williams questioned yesterday whether the council should be asking the courts
to usurp the legislators' authority by ordering the state to spend a predetermined
amount of money on education.
"If Blake and his fellow superintendents take the position that the court
can order the General Assembly to spend `X' amount of dollars or determine whether
the appropriations of the General Assembly are appropriate, then we have a real
separation-of-powers problem," Williams said. "I do not believe under
any circumstances that a trial court or the Supreme Court will do that."
Richards could not be reached for comment yesterday, but he said last week
that he remained committed "to getting all the money that we can for education,
given the restrictions that are inherent with economic conditions."
While the education council's original lawsuit focused on funding inequities
among school districts, the key issue this time is funding adequacy — the
amount of money a school district needs to teach each student the skills and
knowledge necessary to meet Kentucky's education standards.
THE COUNCIL says the General Assembly needs to pump an additional $892million
annually into elementary and secondary education — on top of $4.1billion
the state already pays— to meet the educational goals established in the
landmark 1989 Kentucky Supreme Court ruling.
That ruling — the result of the council's 1985 lawsuit — said school
funding based on local property taxes was unconstitutional and created unequal
educational opportunities among districts. The decision resulted in passage
of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990 and boosted state funding for local
districts.
The Council for Better Education can expect the state to put up a better fight
this time than it did in the initial lawsuit, said Bob Sexton, executive director
of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, a statewide education advocacy
organization in Lexington.
"We had a legislature and a governor that, while they weren't happy with
that lawsuit in the 1980s, they didn't really defend against it," Sexton
said. "They basically agreed that there was an equity problem."
This time lawmakers have refused to promise more school funding because of
the state's uncertain revenue projections and the approaching gubernatorial
election.
Moreover, lawmakers say Kentucky's education reform already has led the state
to pour billions into schools to improve student achievement.
In the 1980s Kentucky ranked 43rd in per pupil spending. Today, it ranks 30th,
spending $6,854 a year on a typical student, according to the state Department
of Education.
Complicating the situation is the state's revenue problem. Last month, state
officials said the state could see a $274million shortfall this fiscal year
because of the sluggish economy. The state also is grappling with a Medicaid
shortfall of $200million this fiscal year.
"The economic circumstances of all the state is probably as bad as it
has been in history," Sexton said.
EDUCATION LEADERS argue that regardless of economic conditions, the state has
the constitutional duty to provide an adequate elementary and secondary education
for every child in Kentucky.
Nationwide, funding-adequacy lawsuits are on the rise, fueled by education
reform that uses tests to measure whether students are meeting learning standards.
Those test results have given education advocates the evidence they need to
go to court for more money, said Steve Smith, a senior policy specialist for
the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"In a sense, they (legislators) have done the plaintiffs' homework for
them," Smith said.
Eighteen of 28 school-funding lawsuits filed since 1989 have been successful,
said Molly Hunter, project director of the Advocacy Center for Children's Educational
Success with Standards, or ACCESS, a group of attorneys and educators that promotes
lawsuits based on education financing. ACCESS is a project of the Campaign for
Fiscal Equity, which filed a lawsuit against New York's education system.
The Kentucky advocacy group contends that between 1994 and 2003, state spending
on elementary and secondary education fell from 48percent of the general fund
to 41.2percent. And the state has not provided money to address issues such
as the state's growing population of students who are not fluent in English.
While schools have made progress since 1990, Haselton and more than 50 superintendents
who joined him at the news conference yesterday said more money is needed if
schools are expected to meet the state's education goals by 2014.
"The challenge for the court this time around would be to define what
it means to provide an adequate education for each and every Kentucky school
student," said Richard Day, a University of Kentucky instructor who has
studied the council's first lawsuit.
"For those who envision a strong public school system as perhaps the best
route for social and economic justice, they ought to be rooting for this to
be successful," said Day, who is principal of Cassidy School in Fayette
County.
Some state lawmakers, including Williams, said the latest lawsuit could threaten
Kentucky's education reform.
"The court could declare this system unconstitutional, and they could
have to start all over again," he said. "If they want to do that,
they're dealing with a different bunch of people than they were in 1990."
Haselton said the council has confidence "the courts will act appropriately."
Kern Alexander, who was an unpaid consultant on the first council lawsuit and
also is consulting on a separate school-funding lawsuit filed by 16 south-central
Kentucky students and their parents, agreed the court could require modifications
in KERA. That wouldn't necessarily be bad, he said.
"We think KERA is certainly a step forward, but this has been going on
13 years, and there are still students in Kentucky that are being denied their
constitutional right in Kentucky," Alexander said.
THE COUNCIL IS asking a judge to determine the amount of money the legislature
needs to spend on education by the next fiscal year that begins July 1, 2004.
Two studies commissioned by the state Department of Education have estimated
that Kentucky needs to spend $750million to $2.3billion more annually to adequately
fund schools.
Courts nationwide have traditionally avoided telling states what they need
to spend, leaving lawmakers to rework the systems, Hunter said.
"They don't dictate dollar amounts because it's not their role,"
she said.
The lawsuit is unlikely to be resolved quickly. The original lawsuit took four
years to work its way through the courts.
Nationally, such suits usually take two or three years before there is a ruling,
Hunter said.
Herald-Leader
September 17, 2003
Don't freeze tuition
Plan looks good only at first glance
Editorial
At first glance, a Louisville lawmaker's proposal to require state universities
to charge students the same tuition for the first four years they are in school
makes a certain amount of sense.
First glances, though, are often deceiving. When Rep. Ron Crimm's tuition freeze
plan is examined from all sides, it doesn't look so hot.
Crimm's legislation, prefiled a couple of weeks ago, is a response to the double-digit
tuition increases many students at state colleges and universities are having
to pay this year.
Those tuition increases should be a matter of concern, very serious concern,
for state legislators. It's important not to price students out of the college
market in a state that needs a better-educated work force, including more college
graduates, to attract the kind of jobs that can mean real improvement in our
economy.
It's that worry about putting a roadblock in the way of poorer Kentuckians'
access to a college education that gives Crimm's idea an aura of first-glance
sensibility.
In reality, though, Crimm's proposal treats a symptom of the problem, not the
cause; and it does so in a way that invites even bigger tuition increases in
the future. By freezing tuition for four years for each incoming freshman class,
Crimm's bill actually encourages colleges and universities to base their tuition
rates on projected costs four years down the road, causing students to pay more
than necessary in their first three years of school.
Tuition jumped drastically this year at state colleges and universities for
one simple reason: The General Assembly -- Rep. Ron Crimm and his colleagues
-- failed to fund these institutions adequately in the current state budget.
With the passage of the 1997 higher education reform package, state lawmakers
asked our colleges and universities to provide postsecondary educations to greater
numbers of Kentucky students.
The University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville were asked to achieve
national prominence as research institutions. Regional universities were asked
to achieve national prominence in specified areas, as well. And the Kentucky
Community and Technical College System was asked to provide a well-trained work
force for the state's businesses and industries.
A few years later, though, the same lawmakers who made these demands of our
public colleges and universities opted to cut state appropriations for higher
education instead of taking the dreaded step of raising taxes.
Placed in the position of having to meet the goals of the 1997 reforms with
inadequate funding, the schools did the only thing they could do. They raised
tuition significantly -- in effect, imposing the tax increase lawmakers were
too cowardly to enact.
The alternative would have been to cut programs, lay off professors and further
restrict enrollments -- thereby stalling or even setting back the higher education
progress Kentucky has made in recent years.
Yes, this year's big tuition increases may price some Kentucky students out
of the higher education market. But the solution to that problem is not a "freeze"
that actually encourage even larger tuition increases. The solution is for lawmakers
to fund the state's colleges and universities adequately, so they won't be forced
to raise tuition so drastically in the future.
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