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Guest Commentary
By Rep. Kim Hixson
Legislative syllabus for success
Before I was elected to the legislature I worked as a professor at UW-Whitewater. As a professor, I was required to make a plan for the semester called a syllabus that I distributed to my students on the first day of class. This syllabus was designed to help students be successful in my class by scheduling the assignments and laying out the objectives I had for the class.
It seems only natural for me as a legislator to still be interested in helping students be successful. I am introducing several pieces of legislation designed to help students be successful through college and beyond. As these legislative bills are designed to help students succeed, I am calling these bills the Legislative Syllabus for Success.
This Syllabus for Success is important to our state economy. We need to grow the number of college graduates in Wisconsin as we have fallen behind other Midwest states in the percentage of our adults who have college degrees. Along with this decline, we have seen the average individual income in our state fall behind those other states and in particular Minnesota where they have approximately 20% more adults with college degrees than the Badger State.
THE SYLLABUS for Success is a big picture plan that makes smart investments in higher education in common sense ways. The Syllabus is broken up into four parts.
The first component of the Syllabus for Success is the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (WHEG), which is designed to help those students who have lower incomes and require more financial assistance. I believe that success in higher education should not be dependent on the size of a student's parent's bank account.
I was proud to vote for a $21 million increase in funding to the WHEG program, but we can do more. I have co-authored legislation that creates a dollar-for-dollar match of funding for the WHEG to an increase in tuition. This will ensure that as tuition goes up; our students can still have the financial aid they need to stay in school.
THE NEXT PART of this package would provide students more choices in course material purchasing. This legislation would require that when a textbook publisher solicits an instructor, the publisher must provide the history of text revisions and the price at which the textbook would be sold. This bill will ensure that the instructors have all the information possible on textbooks when making choices about course materials. Another provision requires bookstores to allow students to buy course materials individually, instead of in packages that group materials together, some of which a professor may decide not to use.
The third item in the Syllabus for Success is the creation of a student health care cooperative. Many students tell me about their lack of health insurance. Although most college students are young and, therefore, healthy and have limited access to health through health centers on campuses, there is still a lack of professional medical care available to the un- and under-insured. For students who do become ill or who become injured, having inadequate coverage can result in them dropping out of school.
To help students be able to afford to stay in school, I have authored legislation to create a framework that would allow students in higher education institutions in Wisconsin to pool into one collective purchasing pool. Much like the successful farmers' health cooperative, a student health care cooperative would be run and funded by its members, with no state tax dollars invested.
FINALLY, THE Syllabus for Success would create a state income tax credit for student loan payments. Currently, student loan interest payments are deductible on federal income taxes. However, Wisconsin does not provide its residents the same break on taxes. Creating this income tax credit will help encourage recent college graduates to stay in Wisconsin, instead of taking their solid Wisconsin education to go to work, live and pay taxes in other states.
The Legislative Syllabus for Success will encourage and help young people get the higher education and training they need to succeed in the changing economy of the 21st century. It is a good, common sense approach that costs taxpayers little while having the potential to accelerate growth in our economy and help our children build a better life for themselves and their children.
(Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, represents the 43rd Assembly District which includes parts of Rock and Walworth counties.)
Before I was elected to the legislature I worked as a professor at UW-Whitewater. As a professor, I was required to make a plan for the semester called a syllabus that I distributed to my students on the first day of class. This syllabus was designed to help students be successful in my class by scheduling the assignments and laying out the objectives I had for the class.
It seems only natural for me as a legislator to still be interested in helping students be successful. I am introducing several pieces of legislation designed to help students be successful through college and beyond. As these legislative bills are designed to help students succeed, I am calling these bills the Legislative Syllabus for Success.
This Syllabus for Success is important to our state economy. We need to grow the number of college graduates in Wisconsin as we have fallen behind other Midwest states in the percentage of our adults who have college degrees. Along with this decline, we have seen the average individual income in our state fall behind those other states and in particular Minnesota where they have approximately 20% more adults with college degrees than the Badger State.
THE SYLLABUS for Success is a big picture plan that makes smart investments in higher education in common sense ways. The Syllabus is broken up into four parts.
The first component of the Syllabus for Success is the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (WHEG), which is designed to help those students who have lower incomes and require more financial assistance. I believe that success in higher education should not be dependent on the size of a student's parent's bank account.
I was proud to vote for a $21 million increase in funding to the WHEG program, but we can do more. I have co-authored legislation that creates a dollar-for-dollar match of funding for the WHEG to an increase in tuition. This will ensure that as tuition goes up; our students can still have the financial aid they need to stay in school.
THE NEXT PART of this package would provide students more choices in course material purchasing. This legislation would require that when a textbook publisher solicits an instructor, the publisher must provide the history of text revisions and the price at which the textbook would be sold. This bill will ensure that the instructors have all the information possible on textbooks when making choices about course materials. Another provision requires bookstores to allow students to buy course materials individually, instead of in packages that group materials together, some of which a professor may decide not to use.
The third item in the Syllabus for Success is the creation of a student health care cooperative. Many students tell me about their lack of health insurance. Although most college students are young and, therefore, healthy and have limited access to health through health centers on campuses, there is still a lack of professional medical care available to the un- and under-insured. For students who do become ill or who become injured, having inadequate coverage can result in them dropping out of school.
To help students be able to afford to stay in school, I have authored legislation to create a framework that would allow students in higher education institutions in Wisconsin to pool into one collective purchasing pool. Much like the successful farmers' health cooperative, a student health care cooperative would be run and funded by its members, with no state tax dollars invested.
FINALLY, THE Syllabus for Success would create a state income tax credit for student loan payments. Currently, student loan interest payments are deductible on federal income taxes. However, Wisconsin does not provide its residents the same break on taxes. Creating this income tax credit will help encourage recent college graduates to stay in Wisconsin, instead of taking their solid Wisconsin education to go to work, live and pay taxes in other states.
The Legislative Syllabus for Success will encourage and help young people get the higher education and training they need to succeed in the changing economy of the 21st century. It is a good, common sense approach that costs taxpayers little while having the potential to accelerate growth in our economy and help our children build a better life for themselves and their children.
(Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, represents the 43rd Assembly District which includes parts of Rock and Walworth counties.)
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