Date: March 14th 2011

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go     by Bill Lyne  www.ufwsblog.org

Imagine winning an all-expense paid trip to Disneyland and then getting there only to find that half the rides have been closed.

Last Wednesday, the House Higher Education Committee heard representatives from the state universities testify about the impact of potential budget reductions. It was a parade of university presidents and trustees talking about the carnage of thousands of students turned away, thousands of classes cut, hundreds of jobs lost, skyrocketing tuition, longer time to graduation, and the elimination of whole programs and colleges.

On Thursday, the picture brightened a little bit, when the committee heard testimony from the HEC Board about the impacts of budget reductions on student financial aid. Washington State ranks third in the nation in need-based financial aid for students. That’s something we should be proud of. Even in hard times, the state has remained committed to helping needy students have a shot at college. Governor Gregoire’s proposed budget, which cuts another $380 million from the university budgets, actually adds $91 million to the State Need Grant to try to keep up with the inevitable tuition increases. The 2010 supplemental budget that the legislature recently passed cuts $25 million from the State Need Grant, but this will not reduce any aid. The money will be replaced by funds from the university budgets.

Those two days of testimony represent the right hand gives, left hand takes away dynamic of the zero sum game of higher education in Washington state. While we have been committed, with well above average financial aid and below average tuition, to making sure that students have a shot at college, we have been not so committed to making sure that our universities are able to provide the kind of education those students deserve.

At the same time that Washington ranks in the top five in need-based student financial aid, we are in the bottom five in funding for our state universities. The budget for financial aid is more than the budgets of Western Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, and the Evergreen State College put together.

Next year, over 70,000 students will receive assistance from the State Need Grant. If they attend one of our state universities, they will pay more to get less, they will have fewer classes to choose from, the classes they can choose will be much larger, they will have less access to their professors, and some programs will simply not exist anymore.

It’ll be like Disneyland without Pirates of the Caribbean and the Matterhorn.

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