Funding for Education Excellence was appropriated beginning in the 2011 General Session as one-time funding for several initiatives designated to address specific issues and improve the delivery of education in the State. The Governor's Education Excellence Commission has established the goal of having 66 percent of Utah adult citizens having earned a postsecondary degree or certificate by the year 2020.
During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $10,098,700 from all sources for Education Excellence. This is a 289.6 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $10,008,200 from the General/Education Funds, an increase of 300 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.
In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:
The Board of Regents identified 11 Utah Cluster Acceleration Partnership (UCAP) projects that progressed utilizing some of the one-time funding provided in this line item. These include:
- Aerospace
- Energy
- Digital Media
- Life Sciences
- Health Care
- USU-E
- Dixie
- SUU
- Snow
- China Business Development
- Manufacturing
In addition, the Board of Regents had worked on the implementation of the alignment between education and economic engagement in the following areas:
- Digital Media
- Snow Regional Engagement Strategy
- USU-E Regional Engagement Strategy
- USU-E Phase 3 Strategy
- SUU Phase 3 Strategy
- Dixie Regional Engagement Strategy
- Dixie Phase 3 Strategy
- Life Science Cluster Acceleration Strategy
The following General Education courses were developed and piloted Fall 2012 Semester:
- Math 1010
- Art 1010
- Chemistry 1110
- English 1010
- Math 1030
- Psychology 1010
Additional courses planned for Fall 2013 Semester include:
- Medical Terminology
- Political Science 1100
- Music 1010
- Humanities 1010
- Drafting
- Math 1050/1060
For FY 2012, the Legislature approved a total of $5.5 million in one-time funding to include the following items:
- $1,000,000 for Mission-Based Funding, in conjunction with S.B. 97, passed during the 2011 General Session;
- $250,000 for a Data Integration Project to determine future workforce needs as they relate to students in higher education courses. This project will utilize information form the USHE, UCAT, State Office of Education, and Department of Workforce Services;
- $550,000 to improve the UtahFutures.org website, to help students determine earlier the educational opportunities they would like to pursue;
- $750,000 for Economic Development projects, including existing projects at the University of Utah, Weber State University, and Utah Valley University; and new projects at Southern Utah University, Snow College Dixie State College, and Utah State University - College of Eastern Utah;
- $2,435,700 for the development of six new technology-intensive, concurrent enrollment courses that will fulfill general education requirements and include state achievement assessment of learning outcomes. These courses include: Introduction to Visual Arts, Introduction to Writing, Elementary Chemistry, Intermediate Algebra, Quantitative Reasoning, and Introduction to Psychology. These courses will be available for students in the Fall of 2012; and
- $500,000 for the Utah Business Education Support Trust which will be a website to engage education with businesses.
For FY 2013, the Legislature approved a total of $1.6 million in one-time funding to include the following items:
- $1,000,000 for the continued development of new technology-intensive, concurrent enrollment courses that will fulfill general education requirements. These courses will be available for students in the Fall of 2013;
- $500,000 to develop and implement an online assessment tool to assess the readiness of high school students for post-secondary education and provide individualized adaptive instruction to students who are identified by the assessment tool as needing remediation to be successful in college; and
- $100,000 to support the Women's College Task Force and assist it in increasing the number if women enrolling in, and completing post-secondary education.
For FY 2014, the Legislature approved a total of $1.65 million in one-time funding to include the following items:
- $1,000,00 for Performance Based Funding that supports efforts to increase completions to reach the goal of 66 percent of the adult population having some form of post-secondary education credential by the year 2020. Specific measures include: a) 1st to 2nd year retention, b) Increased completion rates. C) Acceleration in fulfilling the general education math requirement. D) Increase in graduate education. E) Transition from developmental math to successful completion of college math course. ;
- $600,000 for the development of new technology intensive concurrent enrollment courses that will fulfill general education requirements and include state achievement assessment of learning outcomes; and
- $50,000 to support the Utah Women and Education Initiative to assist in increasing the number of women attending and completing a higher education.
For FY 2015, the legislature approved funding in the amount of $2.5 million ($1 million ongoing; $1.5 million one-time) for the following:
- $1,500,000 for Performance Based Funding that supports efforts to increase completions in order to reach the goal of 66 percent of the adult population having some form of post-secondary education credential by the year 2020. Specific measures include: a) 1st to 2nd year retention; b) Increased completion rates; c) Acceleration in fulfilling the general education math requirement; d) Increase in graduate education; and e) Rapid transition of students from developmental math to successful completion of college math course.
- $1,000,000 to support College Readiness Initiatives that support implementation of five proven strategies to improve college completions. Specific measures include: a) Establish 15 credit hours per semester as the normal full-time course load for students; b) Set plateau tuition levels with a focus on 12-15 credit hours to help students maximize their tuition dollars and time; c) Create semester-by-semester degree program maps with specific recommended courses each semester and make them available to current and potential students; d) For students who have not already met general education math requirements in high school, 1) encourage students to enroll in an appropriate mathematics course in their first year of college, 2) encouraging institutions to adopt a strategy to transition students from developmental to credit-bearing math within three semesters, and 3) marketing Math 1050 as a preferred concurrent enrollment option for high school seniors; and e) Explore the feasibility of implementing reverse transfer/stackable credentials.
COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.