South Carolina Committee Develops Plan for Higher Ed

Last week the South Carolina Higher Education Study Committee, formed by the General Assembly in 2007, released its action plan to improve postsecondary education and economic opportunity within the state. Leveraging Higher Education for a Stronger South Carolina outlines more than 100 recommendations distributed among the following four goals: making South Carolina one of the most educated states in the nation; increasing innovation and research; improving workforce training and educational services; and, realizing the state's potential.

The recommendations target workforce improvement for industry sectors expected to grow by 15 percent by 2016. The report identifies these sectors as information, health care, utilities, administrative support, waste management and remediation, educational services, real estate, and management of companies.

The fiscal environment for making the investments to implement the plan presents a formidable challenge. According to recent press coverage of the report's release by the Charleston Post and Courier, South Carolina's support for higher education dropped by 17.7 percent from 2007/08 to 2008/09 - the greatest one-year decline in the nation. The data showing one-year changes in state appropriations for higher education is presented by the Centers for the Study of Education Policy and is available at: http://www.grapevine.ilstu.edu/tables/FY09/Table1_09.pdf

Currently South Carolina is ranked 50th among states in terms of the growth of financial support to higher education over the past 10 years, according to the report. Fortunately, the group believed some of the action items deemed most important could be implemented with little or no additional cost to the state.

Seventeen of the 106 action steps are considered most important for the state to initiate. Examples include:

• Create a state model for formal agreements between higher education and industry to share research and facilitate commercialization;
• Incorporate more practical work experience into instructional program and curricula;
• Promote affordability for higher education through a mix of increased appropriations, capital bond bills, and need-based student aid;
• Expand college application and financial literacy initiatives for high school students;
• Form a statewide network of community-based programs to promote college access; and,
• Make high school attendance compulsory until the age of 18 or high school graduation.

Leveraging Higher Education for a Stronger South Carolina is available at:http://www.che.sc.gov/HigherEd_ActionPlan.htm