To balance the budget during the Great Recession, the state allowed large increases in tuition and, at the same time, enacted massive cuts that left higher education chronically underfunded. Those cuts were not a solution; they were a triage in a time of crisis. Now it’s time to help the patient back to health.
The cuts to higher education have had terrible effects. To maintain sufficient funding to provide a quality education, our universities and colleges have been left with little option but to raise tuition. And every increase in university or community-college tuition has, in effect, barred more and more bright and eligible students from realizing their full potential. This bodes negatively for their futures individually, for the health of our communities collectively and for the vitality of our state economically.
Out of reach
As an example, tuition and fees at the University of Washington are nearly double what they were five years ago, and with such a significant increase, more and more middle-class families are unable to afford higher education for their children. In fact, in 2000, the state funded 72 percent of the cost of education; tuition covered the rest. Now in 2013, the numbers have flipped, as the state pays only 35 percent and tuition covers the rest.
Without affordable access to higher education, how can our children even dream of a better life, let alone attain it? How can our state realize the full potential for our economy without a highly skilled workforce? And how can we adequately provide for the public good that investing in higher education brings?
This is why I’m sponsoring Senate Bill 5420, which would freeze tuition at our public universities for the next two years, and SB 5673, which would do the same at our community colleges. And both bills would provide much-needed state funding to offset loss of tuition and ensure the continuation of quality education at our state institutions.
It’s no secret — and no coincidence — that Washington businesses are ravenous for highly trained workers to fill attractive job openings in our state’s technology and aerospace industries. Without qualified candidates to fill these jobs, these businesses have little recourse but to hire from outside our state.
That makes no sense, either for our businesses or for our students. There’s no reason homegrown Washingtonians shouldn’t fill these jobs — unless the education necessary is priced out of their reach.
Facing reality
Freezing tuition is only part of the solution, and a temporary one at that. Just as importantly, we must adjust state funding to accurately reflect the scope of our institutions of higher learning.
A third bill I’m sponsoring, SB 5421, would help address that by requiring the state Caseload Forecast Council to provide legislative fiscal committees with projections of future enrollments that more realistically represent the number of students.
The measure also would require the state to fund the projected college enrollments, just as it does for K-12 enrollments and inmates in the state’s prisons.
It’s one thing to talk about the American dream and the virtues of the middle class. It’s another to actually take action to give working- and middle-class Americans the same opportunities to access higher education as their more affluent peers.
It’s time to walk the talk: It’s time to put our efforts and our money where our students’ futures are.
SEN. JEANNE KOHL-WELLES (D-36th District) is the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Higher Education Committee. She also serves on the Senate Law & Justice, Rules, and Ways & Means Committees. To comment on this guest column, write to QAMagNews@nwlink.com.