News & Updates

Today’s Seattle Times features an opinion piece by President Mark Emmert.  In calling for higher tuition to mitigate the worst of proposed budget cuts, President Emmert notes:

The task before the Legislature is daunting, to say the least. I know our legislators are struggling mightily to do the right thing, and I don’t doubt the sincerity of their efforts. But as well-intentioned as they are, enacting either of the two legislative budget proposals would send a clear message that Washington is waving the white flag not only in the global competition of the knowledge economy, but on the future of our children.

Virtually all economists recognize there is no greater engine for creating good-paying jobs and building a state’s economy than high-quality colleges and universities, especially research universities. The Legislature’s budget proposals would cripple the state’s capacity to build our economy at just the worst moment. Under either proposal, our state would be left to choose one of two options: deny 10,000 Washington students access to higher education, or dilute quality so badly that we have to remove the “higher” from higher education. Either one would mean that a great many Washingtonians would not be able to achieve their financial and professional dreams.

You can read the entire article here.

Writing on the SeattlePI.com site, David Horsey makes a strong case for preserving higher education funding, through increased tuition if needed.  Discussing the budget cuts proposed last week, Horsey notes:

The only way to make it work is to cheapen the education the students receive, to embrace mediocrity and let Washington’s higher education system settle to the level of Mississippi. What we have right now is a half dozen diverse universities spread around the state that, over the last decade, have become better and better, thanks, in part, to more adequate funding from the state. The University of Washington, in particular, has achieved a level of excellence that has earned it recognition as one of the top research universities, not just in the country, but on the planet. As smarter people than I have observed, the UW is one of the biggest engines we have to drive our economy. Do legislators really want to shut that engine down right when we need it the most?

The entire piece, which is well worth reading, is here.

Earlier today Governor Chris Gregoire announced her support for a 14% tuition increase as a way to offset some of the cuts contained in the legislative budgets proposed last week.  You can read more about the Governor’s announcement in the Seattle Times and the Tacoma News Tribune.  While a 14% increase would still require major budget cuts, it would be significant and the effect on students would be mitigated by increased financial aid.  More as it develops.

With the last committee cutoff now passed, action will turn almost exclusively to the floor for the remainder of the session.  All of our request bills remain active.  Our bill to protect private investment information provided to the endowment has cleared both chambers, but awaits final action to reconcile some slight language differences.  Our bill on tuition setting authority for out-of-state and graduate students was deemed “necessary to implement the budget” — a designation that exempts it from the cutoff and allows it to be considered as part of final budget votes.  Our bill to streamline public works contraction cleared its House committee with an amendment; we are working with lawmakers on final bill language.

Also, the bill to fix unintended consequences caused by the spending freeze put in place earlier in the session has cleared its House committee and now awaits floor action.

As always, we will continue to post updates on bill status and budget negotiations here as soon as they are available.

Two faculty members from Western Washington University authored a strong op-ed piece in the Sunday Bellingham Herald on the effect of proposed budget cuts on higher education.  It’s worth a look.  They say in part:

Universities cannot be turned on and off – it will take decades to recover from cuts of this magnitude. The classes, programs, professors, and students who disappear now won’t be coming back with the next uptick in the economy.

Despite the fact that almost everyone – including President Obama, Governor Gregoire, economic experts, and the business community – agrees that higher education is a key to economic recovery, the Washington state legislature is making it clear that education is not a priority for them.

They are obviously making very difficult choices in very tough times. But times are tough across the country, and no other state is cutting higher education as dramatically as Washington. The 21 percent to 25 percent cuts that the Legislature is proposing are, by a wide margin, the highest in the nation. In California, where the state budget situation is far worse than Washington, the cuts to higher education will probably be around 10 percent.

You can find the entire opinion piece here.

Today’s news has two strong editorials calling for lawmakers to raise tuition in order to reduce the effect of budget cuts proposed last week.  The Tacoma News Tribune says in part:

Olympia needs a mental adjustment. In good times, when direct appropriations are easier to come by, capping tuition might make sense. In this emergency, business as usual could be disastrous.

A 14 percent tuition hike would not be the burden it sounds like. With Congress expanding Pell grants and the federal tuition tax credit, the increase in financial assistance will more than offset another 14 percent in tuition – which would be $875 a year at the UW.

Emmert calculates that only families with incomes greater than $160,000 would pay more after the tuition increase than they do now.

Lawmakers first face a threshold decision: Do they genuinely want to preserve college opportunity for the state’s citizens in this fiscal firestorm? If the answer is yes, the very least they can do is let these schools charge what’s necessary to keep their doors open.

You can read the entire Tacoma editorial here.

The Everett Herald also supports higher tuition, saying in part:

If Washington is to emerge from the recession and the current budget crisis with a stable, competitive economy, state budget negotiators must minimize the damage to higher education.

Budget proposals released by the Senate and House last week would gravely undermine a central cog in the state’s economic engine: its four-year universities. The sheer size of the budget hole — more than $9 billion over the next 27 months, before counting around $3 billion in federal stimulus backfill — makes painful spending cuts unavoidable. For state universities, though, a considerable portion of that pain can and should be offset by tuition increases, an option made more palatable by planned increases in student financial aid.

The complete Everett Herald editorial can be found here.

We are hopeful that as budget negotiations continue, support will grow for the idea of reducing some of the most devastating effects of the proposed cuts through higher tuition, especially since financial aid improvements mean that the net effect on most students will be zero.  Expect this conversation to continue in the coming days.

Rep. Hans Dunshee, Chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee, has unveiled a proposal to ask voters to approve a $3 billion bond package, targeted at school construction.  The idea is to provide a shot in the arm for construction, improve schools, and support green building.  You can read more about the idea here.  UW projects totalling $79 million are included in the proposal.  Rep. Dunshee has scheduled a press conference Monday to lay out his idea in more detail.

Also, lawmakers are working on a bill with the Office of Financial Management to fix some of the problems raised by the freeze bill that was enacted earlier in session.  HB 2328 was introduced last week and is on track for quick action.

People sometimes wonder what kind of toll a legislative session takes.  To answer that question, I’ve posted a picture of myself at the beginning of session and at the end of this week.  Compare for yourself and have a great weekend.

There are just three weeks to go in session (adjournment is scheduled for April 26), and if any more of them are like this one the next sound you hear will be that of heads exploding on the Capitol Campus.

As reported over the last few days on the blog, both the Senate and House have released operating and capital budget proposals.  For higher education, all of the budgets are substantially below those proposed by the Governor, and tuition has not been increased to a level that would provide a meaningful offset to the cuts.  To get a sense of magnitude, the House proposal would roll back state support levels for the UW to that of the 1997 to 1999 biennium.  We are working throughout the University, and in collaboration with the state’s other higher education institutions and supporters, to communicate how cuts of this magnitude will affect not only students but the state economy, and to look for ways we can reduce their effect.

Next week action shifts to the floor — only one Higher Education hearing is scheduled.  That is the House Higher Education Committee which will meet April 9 at 9 a.m. for a briefing on workforce training efforts.

Our request legislation to protect private investment information submitted to the endowment has passed the Senate and now returns to the House for concurrence in an amendment.  Our other bills on tuition policy for graduate and out-of-state students and streamlining public works contracting remain active and are awaiting committee votes.

But the big news for the rest of the session clearly will be the budget and what, if any, revenue packages will be developed to reduce the effect of budget cuts.  Expect plenty of rumors to fly — we’ll do our best to separate solid facts from speculation and post updates here as they become available.

We have posted on our website a document that shows how budget cuts proposed for the UW compare to those in other states, including the Global Challenge states (A group including California, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado and others that are used as a benchmark for states competing in the global economy).  Here are some highlights —

• The level of budget cuts proposed for higher education in Washington are higher than those being considered by any other state in the country but Nevada.

• The 23-31 percent budget cuts in Washington are much higher than the average cuts being considered by the home states of our peer institutions.

• 8-9 percent cuts among the UW Global Challenge Peers

• 7-8 percent cuts among the UW HEC Board 24 Peers

• Tuition at the UW ranks lowest among the Global Challenge State peers, and ranks 18th out of 24 HEC Board peers.

• A 14 percent tuition increase equates to approximately $875 a year in additional fees for resident undergraduate students at the UW.

• After a 14 percent tuition increase, the UW remains the most affordable institution among the Global Challenge State peers and maintains its relative affordability among HEC Board peers.

• Federal increases of $1,000 in Pell grants plus planned increases in Washington State Need Grants will significantly lessen the impact of an $875 tuition increase on students and families.

• The expanded federal tuition tax credit, from $1,800 to $2,500, will assist families making up to $160,000 per year to recover educational expenses over four years, including the $875 tuition increase. Families at the lowest income levels with taxes below $2,500 could actually receive a rebate up to $1,000.

• Students who qualify for Husky Promise will continue to pay zero tuition for four years.

You can read the entire document here.