Education panel recommends better funding, adult literacy

Thursday, July 8, 2004 | 8:16 a.m.

The interim Legislative Committee to Evaluate Higher Education approved a final report on Wednesday that validates Nevada's need for a state college and for a better system of funding higher education.

Those findings were among more than a dozen recommendations approved by the committee to advance higher education that ranged from the need to improve adult literacy to the need to improve transitions for students between community college and the university.

The recommendations will go forward to the 2005 Legislature, the Board of Regents and the University and Community College System of Nevada office for implementation or further study. The only bill draft approved by the committee was the need for another interim committee in 2005-2007 that would continue to work to advance higher education in Nevada.

That committee, if approved, will include more input from university regents and will be authorized to draft a public agenda for higher education in the state.

Regent Jill Derby said that such collaboration was critical so that both groups would "buy-in" to the plan.

Assistant Chancellor Trudy Larson agreed.

"We're excited about this partnership and about really created an agenda the public can support," Larson said.

At the top of that public agenda is the need to diversify the state's economy and accommodate the state's explosive population growth through the implementation of a state college, committee members said. The committee validated a consultant's recommendation that Nevada State College needs to be fully funded and that more state colleges need to be developed.

Consultants said the state college provides a middle-tier in Nevada's system between its two universities and community colleges.

A state college is able to provide residents with access to bachelor's degrees at a lower cost to the state than the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. At the same time, by absorbing the students who would otherwise go to one of the two universities, the state college allows those universities to become more selective and focus on research and economic development.

State lawmakers on the committee mostly supported the need for a state college, but Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, and Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, said they were still concerned with Nevada State College's request for an additional $9 million for a liberal arts building.

Both senators objected to one of the consultant's recommendations, which was to accept the establishment of Nevada State College and the Univerity of Nevada, School of Dental Medicine as a done deal and focus their energy on future needs in higher education. Some legislative naysayers have continued to protest both schools.

"There's enough doubt in my mind that I'm not willing to say they are here to stay," Care said.

The other eight voting members present voted in favor of that recommendation, with only Care and Cegavske voting against it.

Other recommendations the committee approved include:

Cegaske's recommendations to revise the Millennium Scholarship program by limiting scholarships to U.S. citizens and/or to students who went to high school in Nevada all four years failed. Cegaske said she plans to request a bill in the 2005 Legislature because the tobacco money that funds the scholarship is running out and there needs to be stricter requirements on it.

Cegavske said she also planned to work toward a 10-year plan for education for all students from pre-school through college graduation during the 2005 Legislature.