Cost Data Required for
Intelligent Decision Absent
There has been no public
information on the estimated cost of offering bachelor degrees at Harper or at
Illinois Community Colleges. This is in contrast to any other new school
or government programs. The proposed after the fact audit serves
absolutely no purpose. It most likely will not be able to
account for overhead and indirect costs many years old, hence it may not even provide accurate
bachelor degree startup and operating
costs for comparison. The audit will be complete sometime after the sunshine clause applies, i.e. over one year
late to be used in any decision about extension of the program.
Harper's bachelor degrees will
not be more affordable based upon price, as Harper states they will be priced
equal to state universities.
Harper's bachelor degrees
will be less affordable based upon cost. State universities benefit from
economies to scale.
Harper's actual costs are
higher than state universities. (30 semester hours per year '06//'07
data)
* $11,963 Harper's actual freshman and sophomore per year cost.
* $6,192 Northern IL U's
(NIU) actual freshman and sophomore cost.(1)
* $21,330 Harper's inferred
junior and senior cost based upon Illinois law
limiting community college tuition to one third of cost. (2)
* $8,402 NIU's actual
junior and senior cost.
Harper's required subsidy (tax or other)
is higher than state universities. Subsidy is defined as the difference between
per year cost and per year price.
Actual dollars shown for Harper and
NIU. Inferred dollars (based upon Harper's stated bachelor degree tuition
and Illinois
law) are also shown for the proposed Harper bachelor degree students. (30
semester hours per year '06//'07 data)
* $8,723, Harper's freshman and sophmomore actual subsidy.
* $1,292, NIU's junior and
senior actual subsidy.
* $14,220, Harper's inferred
subsidy based upon stated tuition equal to NIU's and Illinois law limiting
community college tuition to one third of cost. (2)
The bill allows full use of all
existing tax revenue i.e. it can be diverted from prime mission students to
bachelor degree students. The provisions of the bill only state that no new taxes shall be used for bachelor
degree students. If the bachelor degree students use any prime mission
assets,direct or indirect, prime
mission students with little higher education and less earning power will pay
extra to subsidize those who already have an associate degree and higher
earning power.
The bill does not state where funds for the ongoing public relations and
lobbying campaign shall come from. The prime mission students have been
paying the public relations and lobbying expenses related to the proposed
bachelor degrees.
Similar Programs Exist
There are numerous
offerings to complete a bachelor degree near Harper.
* SIU offers a Fire Science completion
degree at College of Lake County U center and at Triton Community College.
* NIU offers bachelor completion degree
for medical and public safety personnel in administration within Harper's
district at their Hoffman Estates
center.
* Benedictine University
offers public safety workers a free (grant funded) Homeland Security Degree.
* Thirty additional bachelor completion
opportunities exist near Harper.
* There are also hundreds of on-line
bachelor degree completion programs.
Non-completers At Risk
Harper's bachelor degree
students will be at risk for their time and tuition. At most
universities, full time employed students are allowed to take a maximum of one
half academic load, hence requiring 4 years to complete two years of course
work. If the program ends after 4 years, most students who work full time
and start after the first semester or those who miss even one course for any
reason will not complete during the 4-year program period. With a small
total enrollment class offerings versus working student schedule conflicts are
certain. Any one who has completed a degree while working full time will
attest to this reality.
There are no credit articulation/transfer requirements in the bill.
Credits/classes may have to be repeated to meet the credits earned requirement
at any other degree awarding institution. Most institutions also have
requirements that some minimum number of credits be earned at their institution
before awarding that institution's degree.
Alternate Use of Resources
Harper can do more for its
prime mission students including the full time employed ones. Harper turns away
over one hundred in-district Harper qualified
associated degree, ASRN nursing students each year. Harper has no part time
ASRN program for its full time working prime mission students. Harper
terminated its associate degree program in plant sciencein mid year to save less than half of what
it spent on one lobbyist. No provisions were made for students in the
program.
Harper has building needs for its prime
mission and is near the top of the state's funding list for a tax funded, new
building. Bachelor degree students will use prime
mission student assets.
The prohibition from
offering a bachelor degree program if a 4-year institution offers it on
Harper's campus or its extension sites is week. No matter how many
institutions move a program to Harper's campus, Harper is allowed to choose two
bachelor degree programs. All that is required is to show a workforce
need. An equivalent bachelor degree program offered within or adjacent to
Harper's district would have to move to Harper's campus to avoid
duplication. That is what happened as NIU moved their BSRN degree
completion from Good
Shepherd Hospital, within Harper's district to Harper's campus.
Impacts Elsewhere
This bill sets a precedent
to change Illinois
higher education without a plan. There are downstate Illinois communities that have no access to
local bachelor degree completion programs. Public community colleges
within Illinois
have not been treated differently; any law applying to only one will most
likely soon apply to all. The type of degree majors being offered at Illinois public colleges
have not been limited as long as there is a demand for the desired major. Course offerings will grow as taxpayers can
not be treated differently. Without new
funding prime mission tuition will increase.
If funded and allowed by law any Illinois community
college could award bachelor degrees. This is also true with respect to Illinois high schools
awarding associate degrees. This has not been allowed, as it is not cost
effective.
Based upon Harper and NIU data, the cost
to expand Illinois
community colleges to provide local bachelor degrees is higher than the
expansion of state university extensions. Illinois public university extension
offerings however are limited by the tax funding they receive. This bill expands the higher cost
alternative.
The bill confuses Harper's institutional reporting requirements between The Illinois Community College board and The Illinois board of Higher education. It is silent on rules, controls and reporting
required by all state universities awarding bachelor degrees.
This bill sets a second precedent, the use of public funds by a unit of
government to lobby and conduct a PR campaign to duplicate the role of another
unit of government. To
"go-around" the very agencies set up by the legislature to optimize,
coordinate and assure no duplication of scarce public assets. Envisioning this practice being expanded,
brings to question why should it be allow?
Summary
and conclusion
There are many unknowns associated with this bill. We have provided facts that should be
considered in its formation. We agree that
public education is good. We also know
that the most most cost effective public education is better as it serves the
most students per tax dollar.
Footnotes:
(2007-08 data used, will be
updated when 2008-09 state university cost data is published.)
1 NIU's cost (both the first-two and the
last-two years) includes research and
excludes state paid employee insurance.
However the amounts are comparable and will change the $6,192 for the first two
years (lower division) or the $8,402 for the last two years (upper division) by
a minimal amount.
2 By law Illinois community college tuition and fees
are limited to 1/3 of cost. Harper has stated that tuition is to be the
same as state universities. This equates to $21,330 minimum annual cost
per student based Harper's tuition and fees equaling NIU's off-campus tuition
and fees of $7,110. It sounds high but by Illinois law Harper can only charge tuition
that is 1/3 or less than cost.
Given the stated tuition, Harper's costs should be three or more times
the tuition. The lowest legal number (three times) was used for this
estimate.
Cost and price sources.
Harper's cost: http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/page.cfm?p=2945 Annual Financial Report June 30,2008- PDF
page 62, report page 55
Harper's tuition & fees: http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/page.cfm?p=873
NIU's cost: http://www.ibhe.org/Data%20Bank/costStudies/default.asp Program Major cosrt Study, Pages 4 and 40.
NIU's tuition & fees: http://www.niu.edu/bursar/tuition/0708.shtml
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