State 'Student Achievement Council' forms

OLYMPIA - Washington education officials want every adult in the state to have a high school diploma or the equivalent by 2023. That's one of two goals established by the Washington Legislature through the state Student Achievement Council.

The achievement council also set a goal of ensuring at least 70 percent of Washington adults have some kind post-secondary training by 2023, council director Gene Sharratt said. Currently about 89 percent of Washington adults have a high school diploma or equivalent, and about 50 percent have post-secondary training, he said.

The council was created in 2013 by Governor Jay Inslee, Sharratt said. Its job is to find ways to ensure adults, regardless of age or income, can compete in the job market of the future, he said.

That job market is going to require more training for good jobs, Sharratt said. By 2018, about 62 percent of Washington jobs will require some post-secondary training, according to a study by Georgetown University that was commissioned by the state. Only about 10 percent of jobs will not require at least a high school diploma or equivalent, according to the study.

In light of that, education officials have to make it easier for people to use grade school and high school to get ready for that post-secondary step, and make that step easier to take, Sharratt said.

That doesn't mean everybody has to go to college; post-secondary training is everything from college to apprenticeships, he said. "Some (training) that allows them to match a job skill," he said.

The state's role, he said, is to try to remove some of the roadblocks to post-secondary education and training.

Elementary and secondary education has to prepare kids for the next step, Sharratt said, and the state has to find ways to make college affordable. That's especially true for low-income students, he said.

Currently the state is 49th in per-student state funding, he said. In 2000, the state paid about 70 percent of the total per-student funding for college, while parents and students were responsible for about 30 percent. Then the 2007-09 recession hit, and state officials cut the higher education budget, Sharratt said, and by 2012 the students and parents were paying about 65 percent of the cost and the state was paying 35 percent.

Tuition was increased during that period, but it didn't make up the budget cuts, he said. The 2013 legislature increased funding, and as a result tuition was flat in 2013, the first time tuition stayed stable since 1986, he said. Tuition is expected to stay stable in 2014, he said.

One of the council's jobs will be to help colleges cut costs and increase efficiency, along with urging the legislature to restore the lost higher education funding, Sharratt said. The ultimate goal is to stabilize college costs for the long term, he said.

One way for parents to help cut costs is to take advantage of dual-credit and dual-enrollment plans in high schools, he said, and one of the council's goals is to streamline and expand those programs.