UCLA and dozens of other state universities applied this week to the state’s Awards for Innovation in Higher Education, which will appropriate a total of $50 million to schools that have made efforts to meet the governor’s higher education priorities.
The Awards for Innovation in Higher Education, conducted through the California Department of Finance, will award campuses with programs or policies already in place that are working to reduce degree completion times and improve the transfer process. Friday is the last day to submit an application for the reward.
The reward funding, proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown in his preliminary budget last year, passed the legislature under the Budget Act in June. The state plans to recommend that each award be at least $2.5 million, but all winner and award amounts will ultimately be determined by a selection committee.
UCLA’s application is through the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and centers on the UCLA Community School, which provides K-12 public education in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the local community.
The school opened about five years ago, and 90 percent of its first class is now college-bound, said Jody Priselac, associate dean for community programs at GSEIS.
She said the program leaders think their application exemplifies the tenets of the award because they aim to prepare students for college and thereby ensure longer-term and tangible effects, such as shorter degree completion time.
“Our vision for schooling in California, we feel, is really making a commitment to (innovation), and we feel the potential benefits from it,” Priselac said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they see it that way too.”
The awards selection committee comprises seven members from various state and private higher education-related institutions, including University of California Regent Monica Lozano.
When the governor first proposed the innovation awards as part of the state budget, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office released analysis expressing concerns about its efficacy.
“We had three main concerns: The first one is that it is earmarking a relatively small amount of funding for individual campuses … whereas the state provides billions of dollars in base funding,” said Paul Golaszewski, an analyst at the LAO who specializes in the UC. “The priorities that were outlined weren’t entirely in line with (the governor’s) goals.”
Golaszewski said another concern is that the program is more of a prize or award than purposeful funding. Applicants do not have to provide a planned budget explaining what they would do with the funding.
“In a sense, it’s rewarding campuses for doing things that they’ve already done, rather than a traditional grant,” he said.
Analysts at the LAO also wrote that they believe the state should have waited to see how $10 million that were earmarked for online technology and education in 2013-14 were used before allocating additional unspecified funding for this year.
H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the Department of Finance, said he thinks the awards speak to the governor’s commitment to investment in higher education, with the caveat of tuition being held flat. In November, the UC Board of Regents passed a tuition increase proposal that could raise tuition by up to 5 percent annually for five years if the state does not provide sufficient funding.
“Give us some out-of-the-box proposals on how you think you’d be able to move forward,” Palmer said. “We want awards to further (innovation) already happening.”
Brown’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year will come out Friday. Palmer could not say whether the new proposal will contain similar funding for next year.
Any university that wanted to apply had to notify the selection committee in October. UC officials could not provide any information about other University campuses applying for the awards.
Palmer said the Department of Finance was expecting more than 40 applications based on notifications from October.
Palmer said the money will be distributed by the end of the fiscal year in June.
If UCLA is awarded, Priselac said various campus and off-campus leaders plan to come together to decide how to distribute the money.