Higher Education Facing Mediocrity, State Senators Warn Public Needs To Spend More, Demand Better

Two state senators on Saturday warned Washington’s higher education system is in danger of falling into mediocrity unless the public demands better.

The amount of tax money spent on colleges and universities has fallen markedly in relation to other state programs, they said.

Already, Washington ranks dead last among the 50 states in the number of students enrolled in public colleges compared with the total population.

“Politicians say higher education is a high priority, but it’s not getting the money,” said Sen. Eugene Prince, R-Thornton.

His legislative district includes Washington State University and Eastern Washington University.

Prince and Sen. Nita Rinehart, D-Seattle, were guests at a sparsely attended forum sponsored by WSU Spokane on Saturday.

Prince said the low turnout may be an indication that people are not all that concerned about what happens to the state’s colleges and universities.

They should be, he said.

The number of high school graduates is expected to increase by 50 percent over the next 15 years, and the state is going to have to figure out a way to make more classroom seats available for those grads, he said.

The amount of money spent on higher education declined from 15 percent of the state budget in 1975 to 8.5 percent this year.

“The Legislature is a mirror reflection of public attitude,” Prince said.

When the public starts demanding a better higher education system, lawmakers will “get ingenious and figure out a way to do it.”

Rinehart said higher education remains one of the best investments a person can make, yet it’s increasingly out of reach for many state residents.

College graduates enjoy higher incomes and suffer less unemployment than people without advanced learning, statistics show.

Tuition has gone up by 122 percent in the past decade. It costs resident undergraduates $2,907 a year to attend WSU, less at EWU and community colleges.

Only the very top high school students are now being admitted to the University of Washington, Rinehart said.

“The competition for admission and the cost will be prohibitive if we don’t change our course,” Rinehart said.

She is the chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and is sponsoring a bill that would tie future funding and tuition increases to the growth in personal income in the state.

But that won’t solve the problem of making more room for thousands of new students in coming years, she said.

The health of the state’s economy depends in large measure on having an educated work force, said Douglas Baker, chair of the WSU faculty senate.

Budget cuts and salary freezes over the past three years are discouraging some of the most talented faculty members. Some of them are leaving for better jobs in other states, he said.

“We really need to build the higher education infrastructure,” Baker said.