Students Will Flood Colleges Children Of Baby Boomers To Put Squeeze On Higher Ed

The state’s prime college-age population is expected to increase by 100,000 over the next seven years as a tidal wave of baby boomers’ kids hits the higher-education system, a state panel says.

“Are we going to turn our backs on those students? I certainly hope not,” said Richard Sonstelie, chairman of the Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The number of 17- to 22-year-olds had been relatively stable since the mid-1980s. But an increase of 100,000 is projected by the year 2002, according to the state Office of Financial Management. Combining those students with 23- to 29-year-olds, the other prime age group for college students, the number of college-age residents would increase by 300,000 by 2020.

That presents “a very real funding crisis for higher education,” Sonstelie said.

The board is updating its master plan for the state’s higher education system, and new plans to handle these young people are critical, board members said Wednesday.

In addition, a task force appointed by Gov. Mike Lowry will meet Aug. 4 to begin discussing a new financing system for higher education.

State Sen. Al Bauer, D-Vancouver, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee and a task force member, said he will recommend that the Legislature require that a certain percentage of the state budget goes to higher education.

Unlike kindergarten-through-12th-grade education, which the state is required to provide, there are no mandates for financing higher education.

About 76,000 students attend the state’s six public four-year colleges.

The state has put caps on college enrollment since 1980. The limits were intended partly to prevent colleges from compromising quality by enrolling more students than the state could pay for.

In its original master plan in 1987, the higher education board’s priority was to improve the quality of the state’s colleges, not to increase access.

But with the college-age population about to swell, the board wants to make access a major part of its update.

Educators fear there won’t be enough money available to allow for greatly increased enrollment.

“There’s got to be some changes … or higher education is going to get squeezed,” said board member Frank “Buster” Brouillet.

Thomas George, Washington State University provost, agreed that money was a key. Washington compares poorly with other states in higher education funding, he said.