The state’s five public universities and The Evergreen State College will set their own undergraduate tuition under a bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday and is expected to be signed by the governor. Read the Seattle Times story.
Category: Tuition
Tuition-setting authority likely
Legislators appear to have reached agreement on allowing the state’s public universities to set undergraduate resident tuition for the next four years. The bill, House Bill 1795, also would permit institutions to charge more for higher-cost degree programs.
Budget issues unresolved; special session likely
With the legislative houses several hundred million dollars apart on a final biennial budget, and the official end of the session coming this week, a special session is all but certain. Dozens of important fiscal and policy bills also await action. Read an update from Olympia here.
Higher Education Opportunity Act: A roadmap for the future?
House Bill 1795, which is before the House Ways & Means Committee, “attempts to help our state’s two and four year institutions of higher education manage their way through this Great Recession,” according to its sponsor, Rep. Reuven Carlyle.
The bill gives institutions of higher education four years of tuition setting authority to help offset the dramatic cuts to their base state budget. Also according to Carlyle, “it moves from an input to an output based system of funding with genuine accountability for degree production and not merely student enrollments.” The bill also would provide financial aid for the middle class, what he calls “largest expansion of financial aid for the middle class in state history.”
Read more about the bill on Rep. Carlyle’s blog.
Statement from UW Interim President Phyllis Wise on House budget
“It is discouraging to see half of the state’s appropriation for the UW disappear in the space of two biennia. On the one hand, we are grateful that the House budget writers recognize the links among tuition, state funds, and financial aid. When the state does not have the funds to support higher education, raising tuition and preserving the state need grant are mechanisms by which we can try to maintain excellence and access. However, it is disappointing that the dramatic shift in who pays for higher education in our state continues and that students will bear an even greater proportion of the costs for education. While it may enable us to weather this storm, it is certainly not a viable long-term strategy. We need a different model for funding the university.”
Olympian newspaper calls for giving higher ed tuition authority to offset budget cuts
The Olympian newspaper, in an editorial, calls for giving the state’s universities the flexibility to make up budget shortfalls with higher tuition. The editorial points out that current proposals, if enacted, could mean that state funding of the UW has been cut by half in just three years.
UW describes potential effects of large budget cuts
In response to a request from legislative leaders, Interim President Phyllis Wise outlined the effect of budget cuts that were at the level of the governor’s proposed cuts (about $189 million) plus 15 or 30 percent. Those effects could include:
- Up to 500 fewer Washington residents in the freshman class
- Loss of up to 1,800 jobs on campus
- Potential consolidation of two schools, as well as the loss of other degree programs
- Annual tuition increases of 23 to 30 percent
- Increased time-to-degree of as much as three academic quarters, increasing a student’s tuition needs by $8,700
The Olympian described the potential effects as “troubling.” The Seattle Times called the scenario of cuts at the UW and elsewhere in higher education as “grim.”
Read Wise’s letter to the legislators here.
Bill would give universities unlimited tuition authority for four years
The state’s colleges and universities would have four years of unlimited tuition-setting authority to establish a new baseline for tuition under a bill introduced Tuesday.
State’s prepaid college tuition program may face overhaul
With tuition rising rapidly at the state’s public colleges and universities, some legislators believe the popular Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) program may need to be restructured.
Higher ed task force makes recommendations
A task force appointed by the governor has recommended that the state’s four-year colleges and universities be allowed to raise tuition to cover costs if necessary to produce more college graduates to meet demand. The task force also recommended creating a scholarship fund with a $1 billion fund-raising goal in the next decade to support low- and middle-income students.
A sampling of news coverage about the task force’s report: Seattle Times | AP/Seattlepi.com | Herald.net (Everett) | Puget Sound Business Journal