Utah’s “debt-to-degree” ratio is $7,175, less than half the national average, according to a recent data analysis by Education Sector, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Only Florida and California have lower ratios; both are states that keep tuition low and maintain generous need-based aid programs. Utah, on the other hand, is one of the stingier states when it comes to providing financial assistance.

A recent report from the Utah System of Higher Education, meanwhile, found

that Utah’s spending per degree awarded is the third lowest in the nation, at about $42,000 (Florida is lowest). So Utah appears to be getting the best of both worlds: low debt on students and low burden on taxpayers.

“A good share of it is explained by low tuition. We have the fourth-lowest in the country, so it’s cheaper, and Utah has an aversion to debt,” said Commissioner of Higher Education William Sederburg. “It’s an indication of an efficient system.”

He said Utah promotes concurrent enrollment and transferability of credit among institutions, which help students graduate sooner by avoiding redundant courses.

Education Sector’s new debt measure provides a more complete picture of schools’ performance than simply graduation rates, default rates or average debt, according to report authors Kevin Carey and Erin Dillon, policy analysts for the think tank. They made their calculations by adding up the volume of federal loans at every school between 2006 and ’07 and 2008 and ’09, then dividing those figures by the number of credentials schools awarded during that period.

Schools with poor graduation rates should have high ratios, even if borrowing is low. More…

According to a new Dan Jones & Associates poll released Wednesday, Utahns with a degree or certification have an income level 75 percent higher than those who do not, and are also two-and-a-half times more likely to hold salaried positions.

“Over the course of their work life, students who receive a baccalaureate degree earn about $650,000 more than high school graduates — a significant increase over those who end their education right after high school,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Bill Sederburg. “The benefits of a college degree extend beyond monetary value too, as individuals with college degrees experience increased career opportunities, better health care benefits and overall a deeper quality of life.”

The poll surveyed 1,200 Utahns, evaluating them on highest level of education, degree type, household income, current employment status, job type, employment benefits, civic engagement, use of government assistance and family education.

The key findings in the poll were that Utahns with higher education were more likely to fare better in today’s turbulent economy, have a happier life and are 50 percent more likely to vote and more likely to donate to local charities and volunteer their time than those without a degree or certification.

The poll shows that nearly one quarter of Utahns with no degree or certification have experienced more than two years of total unemployment, compared with only 9 percent of those with a post-secondary education.

Across the board, people polled said their post-secondary education has had a positive effect on key factors related to their lives and families compared to those without. Degree and certificate holders are more likely to report personal happiness, to have a better perception of their relationships, to characterize themselves as having good families, and to report having better health than those without a degree or certification.

The poll was commissioned by Prosperity 2020, a business-led group consisting of several Utah chambers of commerce, higher education officials, state economic development experts, the United Way and the Utah Technology Council. More…

Degree holders are less likely to have been unemployed and to have tapped public assistance such as food stamps and Medicaid, according to a presentation to a legislative panel meeting Wednesday at Mountainland Applied Technology College. Those with degrees reported better health, greater career and personal satisfaction and greater community engagement, not to mention 75 percent greater earning power, said Randy Shumway, president of the Salt Lake City market research firm Cicero Group.

“The fact that those who obtain a level of education beyond high school make more money won’t surprise many,” said Mark Bouchard, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis. “What we see from the survey is that the benefits go well beyond the paycheck.”

Bouchard chairs Properity 2020, a partnership of a dozen Utah business groups that commissioned the survey to support its ambitious agenda to build a more educated workforce. Cicero sent invitations to 10,000 Utah residents who were randomly selected yet were representative of the state’s demographics. Researchers gathered the data by mail, in person, by phone and by email from 1,200 respondents, generating a robust and reliable dataset that pointed to some surprising results, according to Shumway.

“Those who completed degrees are 2.6 times more likely to work in a salaried rather than an hourly job,” Shumway told the Legislature’s Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

Prosperity 2020’s goals dovetail with the Utah System of Higher Education’s initiative to increase to two-thirds the portion of Utah’s adult population with a postsecondary degree or certificate.

Commissioner of Higher Education William Sederburg noted that the 28 percent of the population with a bachelor degree covers nearly half the state’s tax revenues.

“Over the course of their work life, students who receive a baccalaureate degree earn about $650,000 more than high school graduates — a significant increase over those who end their education right after high school,” he said. “The benefits of a college degree extend beyond monetary value too, as individuals with college degrees experience increased career opportunities, better health care benefits and overall a deeper quality of life.” More…

For Mr. Sederburg, his work in Utah is the extension of a lifetime in and around higher education. He holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and taught a variety of courses at different universities well before becoming president at Ferris State. While in the Senate, Mr. Sederburg was chair of the Senate Appropriations Higher Education Subcommittee, which determines funding for public universities.
Having a network of universities with different missions enables savings on purchasing of computer systems, library collaboration, sharing of various resources and joint online databases, Mr. Sederburg said.
State funding and tuition in Utah is a world apart from Michigan. In Utah, state funding provides 60 percent of universities’ operating budgets. In Michigan, state funding has dropped to below 30 percent with tuition making up the rest.
While tuition at Ferris State is about $7,200 per year, tuition at Utah Valley, which Mr. Sederburg said is a comparable school, is $4,600.
“Our tuition out here is very low compared to Michigan schools,” he said.
There’s greater coordination of each school’s offerings in Utah. For example, while some Michigan universities are launching new medical schools, Mr. Sederburg said such moves in Utah would require the approval of his office.
“We try to coordinate the services of the schools as much as possible,” he said. “We try to think of it as more of a network where we try to give a lot of autonomy to each school.”
Not everything is rosy though. Tuition has gone up an average of 8 percent to 9 percent in recent years to address a 22 percent rise in enrollment in the past three years, as well state funding cuts of 14 percent.
Michigan universities have struggled to convince the Legislature to prioritize higher education funding, which has taken repeated huge cuts in the last decade. And public polling has shown voters don’t rank higher education funding especially high. At one point, Mr. Sederburg said a former House speaker in Utah told him of proposed funding cuts that university officials are smart and would find a way to make their budgets work no matter how tough the cuts.
Mr. Sederburg said his office commissioned a survey in Utah and officials were shocked to find that only 20 percent of the public knew the state funded universities, having instead thought they were all funded through tuition only.
“I thought that could explain a lot of this,” he said.

To read the rest of this article from Gongwer News Service, Michigan, click here (You must register a username and password for a trial subscription).

Nearly 80% of Utah’s legislators have post-secondary degrees and (as you’ll read) I feel their support for higher education should come easily. However it seems there is a disconnect between higher education and legislative action. In this opinion, I speculate why this may be the case.

Anyhow, here’s what I wrote in it’s entirety, but please check out the Chronicle of Higher Education’s website to learn more about their Degrees in the Statehouse series:

Those of us who work in public higher education wonder why state legislators don’t make post-secondary education a higher priority when deciding state budgets. With that question in mind, not long ago I invited several legislators to join a television program I hosted on our educational station.

During their interviews, it was clear that while their understanding of how higher education operates varied greatly, overall they understood and supported the logic for a strong higher-education system and how critical it is to the state’s economic growth and essential for personal success. On a personal level, their children attended college, and they loved their own college experiences. I pushed for negative comments but only got a few, about faculty tenure, irrelevant degrees, and inefficiencies.

My conclusion is that higher education has won the academic argument with policy makers. However, we haven’t been able to convert the academic argument into political action. The big question is, Why not? One Utah legislator answered that he simply doesn’t hear from constituents about supporting higher education, because they’re more concerned with roads, unemployment, and taxes.

We are losing for three reasons. First, the public sees higher education as a private, not a public good. Second, our depressed economy has put a premium on jobs and economic security. Third, political ideology reigns supreme, and pragmatic support of the educational “establishment” has been devalued.

The chasm between the academic argument and political action will shrink only if we can mobilize legislators with college degrees to support our enterprise. Political support for higher education should come easily, as most legislators have degrees. Yet higher education is not getting vigorous advocacy from its graduates. Perhaps a college degree has only helped those legislators understand their basic role: representing the interests, values, and beliefs of their constituents.

Higher education must let elected officials know that it’s in their interest to support colleges. We also have to sell the public on the value of what we do by reconnecting with constituents. And, finally, we must have a serious conversation about what has prevented more-vigorous advocacy. Only then can we close the gap between the academic argument and legislative action.

To read this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, click here.

SALT LAKE CITY –   Utah Commissioner of Higher Education, Bill Sederburg, expressed appreciation to the legislature today for keeping budget cuts to colleges and universities to approximately 2%. Sederburg says, “We are disappointed the legislature didn’t follow the Governor’s lead in keeping our budget to last year’s levels. However, the budget reductions are far less than the original 7% at the start of the session, as well as far less than those discussed in other states.” Sederburg adds, “Also, the legislature was very supportive of many of our policy initiatives.”

The original 7% cut equaled about $50M, a reduction with serious consequences to all of the state’s institutions. Now, the budget reductions of 2 to 2.5% (totaling roughly $18M), coupled with enrollment increases and the need to maintain quality, will force moderate tuition increases. According to Sederburg, “My goal is to limit tuition increases to what is absolutely necessary to respond to the needs of the state and not hurt quality. We are in the process of determining our recommendation to the Board of Regents in late March.”

Throughout the session, higher education officials were appreciative of the hard work and consideration from the Legislature, especially to restore most of the money after the initial 7% cut. Commissioner William Sederburg said, “We realize that the cuts this year could have been more, however, any cuts to higher education create a significant impact and this will be our fourth year of having to do more with less.” Just last year, higher education faced a 12% cut to the base budget.

Higher education officials are appreciative of policy advances that will benefit Utah’s colleges and universities. Mission Based Funding for institutions, online concurrent enrollment courses and data integration initiatives were all successes during the session, as were the passing of Higher Education Success Stipend (SB107) and Utah Educational Savings Plan Amendments (SB145) bills. Additionally, the defeat of HB485 to eliminate tenure for professors was also a success for higher education this year.

Earlier this year, the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, along with other state agencies and business leaders, began a major push to have 66% of Utah’s workforce with post-secondary training or degree by the year 2020. This 66% is what the workforce of the State of Utah will require in order to achieve economic prosperity for the future. Commissioner Sederburg notes, “While we are grateful for the funding for our state colleges and universities will receive this year, at some point very soon we need our state to invest money in higher education if we want Utah’s economy to thrive.”

About The Utah System of Higher Education: USHE includes all of Utah’s eight public colleges and universities: The University of Utah, Utah State University, Weber State University, Southern Utah University, Snow College, Dixie State College, Utah Valley University and Salt Lake Community College. For more information on the Utah System of Higher Education, visit our website at http://www.higheredutah.org.

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To the Utah House of Representatives,

As this Legislative session comes to a close, officials in my office as well as officials at all of our System colleges and universities are painfully aware of the budgetary challenges being faced in the state of Utah as we have consistently faced cuts in state funding since 2008.  Higher Education’s share of the state budget has declined while the share of state spending for Medicaid has risen significantly and continues to rise.

Medicaid, as a percentage of all general and education funds, has grown from 9% in 1998 to 18% in 2011, and is projected to hit 46% by 2020. To the extent that unconstrained growth in state Medicaid funding falls onto the shoulders of Higher Ed, this means a burden that will ultimately cost us Utah’s future prosperity as find it increasingly necessary to provide access to all Utahns who desire to achieve the education and training they need.

As Commissioner of Higher Education, I support efforts by the Legislature to reform and restrain unnecessary Medicaid spending. SB 180 will establish the means for significant conversation with key stake holders about improving Medicaid. We in higher education look forward to the dialogue.

I urge your favorable consideration of improving Medicaid so it can meet critical human needs without harming K-12 and higher education. These efforts include SB180. You should be aware the Utah State Board of Regents has not had the opportunity to take an official position on the legislation.

Thank you for your consideration.

William A. Sederburg