Gregoire proposes up to 14 percent tuition hikes at the state’s 4 year colleges…
Saying that Washington cannot allow the sort of deep budget cuts proposed by lawmakers for higher education, Gov. Chris Gregoire this morning met with the state's top lawmakers and proposed letting the state's four-year schools boost tuition by 14 percent a year over the next two years. Community and technical colleges would be allowed to hike tuition by 7 percent a year.
Gregoire said that increased federal Pell Grants and federal tax breaks would largely offset the increase. And she said the state will need a well-educated workforce as it emerges from the recession.
The change would save jobs and head off at least some of the expected loss of 10,000 slots for incoming students over the next two years.
Tuition at Washington State University, she said is about $6,700 a year. At community colleges, it averages $2,700 a year. And even raising the four-years' tuition up to 28 percent over the next two years, Gregoire says, is likely to be cheaper for students than going to school for another semester or another year in order to get into classes that were full due to budget cuts.
"This is to get you the ability to get out of that institution on time," she said. "If we don't do that, you'll pay a lot more" to stay in school longer.
She also says that state tuitions -- which are subsidized by taxpayers, although less so than in the past -- would still be a great deal compared to peer institutions.
"We're giving them a bargain," she said. "We shouldn't apologize for tuition in Washington State."
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown said that lawmakers will consider the idea as part of legislative negotiations, but she was clearly lukewarm on the plan. Lawmakers are particularly worried about the long-term costs that would result, since the state's prepaid-tuition plan is pegged to the cost of tuition at the UW. Raise tuition there, and the state must pay out more later for the students in that program, called Guaranteed Education Tuition. Also, higher tuition is likely to mean more state costs for financial aid, Brown said.
Gregoire's budget director, Victor Moore, said that the GET fund costs could be built into subsequent price increases for people buying credits.