Thursday, March 3, 2005 | 9:47 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The state will stop paying for remedial courses at universities by the 2006 school year, so legislators on Wednesday wanted to know why the schools want to keep the funding for the classes.
About 40 percent of recent Nevada high school graduates entering the University and Community College of Nevada needed remedial education in summer and fall 2004, according to a recent system report.
About 920 of the 2,024 entering freshman at UNLV and 114 of the 372 entering freshman at UNR weren't ready to go straight into college-level math or English classes or both.
That amounts to about 500 full-time students in remedial courses at the two universities, consultant Dan Miles told a joint subcommittee of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.
Starting in 2006, the courses will be moved to the state's community colleges, which can offer cheaper classes that better meet the student's needs, Christine Chairsell, interim vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, said.
"That's one of the functions of a comprehensive community college," Chairsell said.
Universities could continue to offer the courses but would have to rely entirely on student fees instead of state money, Chairsell said.
Legislators asked why the courses couldn't be completely moved to the community colleges by this fall and why the universities were still asking to keep the funds for the 500 full-time students in remedial courses.
Miles said the money for the remedial classes comes to the universities through the state's formula funding, funding that is based on a three-year rolling average of full-time students. There is nothing in the formula to make adjustments for program changes like this, Miles said, and because the universities will be adding more core classes to meet demands, there might not be a change in the total full-time enrollment.
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the remedial system is unfair. University students are placed in remedial classes based on test scores such as the ACT and SAT, while community colleges place students based on their own assessment tests.
"There's also a push for our high school kids to get dumped into a remediation class," she said, adding that, now, universities collect fees on remediation classes and are reimbursed by the state.
"It just bothers me that we seem to be dumping kids and collecting dollars twice," said Giunchigliani, a former spokeswoman for the Community College of Southern Nevada.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, asked for estimates on how much it would cost to move the money now used for remedial classes to community colleges. He also asked the system to consider making the switch sooner.
The switch was teamed with a subsequent increase in admissions requirements at the university, said Miles, formerly the system's vice chancellor for finance.
Universities hope that increases in high school standards will force more students to take core classes such as math, English and science their senior year, meaning they wouldn't be as likely to need remedial courses in 2006, Miles said.
"If they want to go to UNR or UNLV, then they're going to come prepared," he said.
Giunchigliani also expressed concern Wednesday about a $14 million biennial request for the dental school at UNLV. The school was supposed to be self-sufficient, but it's costing the state more and more, she said.
"We're stewards of the public's money," she said. "We need to know if it's working or not working. I think at this point it has become a burden on the state."
Raggio, however, questioned whether the school was indeed ever supposed to be completely self-sustaining.
The biennial request of about $7.4 million a year represents only a portion of the school's $26.3 million budget, Gerry Bomotti, vice president for finance at UNLV, said.
The request is an increase over previous years mainly because the school is adding its final class of 75 students in fall 2005, raising the total enrollment to its capacity of 300, Bomotti said. As the enrollment has grown, and as the first class of students is now going into its final year of the program, the school's costs have grown, Bomotti said.
The request also appears to be larger because of an accounting change in how the building'smaintenance costs are counted, Bomotti said. Previously, the dental school's maintenance costs on Shadow Lane were included with the costs for the university's main campus on Maryland Parkway.
UNLV President Carol Harter defended the school, saying it relies mostly on the $15,000 in-state and $30,000 out-of-state tuition it charges, as well as Medicaid money it receives for the school's clinic. And dental schools are in high demand, she said. The school has received 1,800 applicants for 75 student slots and served almost 87,000 patients through its clinic in 2004, she said.
Earlier this legislative session, Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, the vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he thought the school was becoming a burden on state coffers.
After the meeting, Giunchigliani said several legislators have their own concerns about the dental school, though some won't voice them yet. When asked if the school could go on the chopping block this year, she said it could be.
But it's not the only aspect of the proposed higher education budget that needs to be justified, Giunchigliani said.
"There needs to be a justification for a whole bunch of things," she said of the state's higher education budget.
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