Prepay Tuition Costs - And Forget About Inflation Locke Oks Advance Tuition Plan For State Colleges, Universities

Gov. Gary Locke on Wednesday approved an “inflation-proof” plan to allow Washington families to prepay college tuition at today’s prices.

The measure will go into effect sometime next spring.

Backers in both parties said the advance-tuition plan will help the middle class from being squeezed out of the market.

“A college education is too vital to the future of our children to be jeopardized by tuition inflation,” the governor said in signing HB1372 in ceremonies at the Capitol. “Middle-income families will see the doors to our state’s colleges and universities opening a bit wider as this measure becomes law.”

“It’s a dandy idea,” said the prime sponsor, House Higher Education Chairman Don Carlson, R-Vancouver. “It’s really about helping the middle class. If you’re very poor, you can get financial aid. If you’re rich, you can go anywhere you want. So it’s the middle-income people who need help today.”

The plan will allow parents to buy tuition “units” at today’s prices and redeem them at any Washington public college in the future, regardless of how much tuition has risen in the meantime.

The plan, crafted by the state Higher Education Coordinating Board at the request of the 1996 Legislature, is largely modeled after an Ohio law. It will allow parents to buy as much as four years’ worth of public college tuition.

Although details haven’t been worked out, lawmakers were told during hearings this winter that the unit cost probably will be about $30. About 105 of those units would pay for a year at the University of Washington or Washington State University, 81 for tuition and fees at Eastern, Western, Central or Evergreen, and 47 for a year at a community college.

More units could be purchased in later years, but at a rate reflecting the higher tuition at the time of purchase. There would be no deadline for using the credits and they could be transferred among family members.

Lawmakers were told that credits also could be applied to accredited private or out-of-state colleges, but the guarantee of a fully paid year’s education wouldn’t apply. The student would have to make up the difference.

Advance payments would be invested by the state Investment Board, which already handles a portfolio of $35 billion, mostly in retirement funds. The college program would be designed to cost taxpayers nothing additional, with investment income offsetting the increase in tuition in future years.

Tuition has risen by an average of 9 percent a year for the past 20 years, but the state investments’ return has been even higher than that, lawmakers were told. The project shouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime, and could well generate income for scholarships, Carlson said in an interview.

Locke said 14 states have similar programs and have found them extremely popular.