Public, state supported university education began in the United States in 1795, when the University of North Carolina first admitted students.  So it seems only appropriate that the bill most likely to keep public universities public in Washington is SHB 1795.

We’ve spoken before about 1795 here at the blog.  It’s the Higher Education Opportunity Act, introduced by Representative Reuven Carlyle (and don’t think it’s not killing us to be kissing Reuven’s ass again—here’s hoping he does something dumb next week that we can make fun of).  This bill is the best hope in this legislative session for saving accessible, affordable, high quality public universities in Washington.  SHB 1795 does several things:

1. It recognizes the reality of the state funding situation and grants tuition-setting authority to the state universities beginning in the Fall of 2011.

2. It then recognizes the obligation of the state to fund public universities and rescinds tuition-setting authority after four years.  In SHB 1795, tuition-setting authority is a temporary measure designed to weather a crisis.  The bill would force the legislature to fully reconsider its failure to appropriately fund higher education after four years.  It does not allow our universities to drift further and further into privatization through legislative inertia.

3. SHB 1795 demands that the universities address the plight of middle class students who will be most squeezed by rising tuition.  This is crucial—the growth and prosperity of the American middle class in the 20th century was fueled by public state universities.  In the face of a desperate economic situation, SHB 1795 works to come up with a formula that will keep public universities both public and universities.

Perhaps the best thing about SHB 1795 is that it is the product of some very hard work by a broad coalition brought together by Rep. Carlyle and Rep. Larry Seaquist, chair of the House Higher Education Committee.  Students, faculty, staff, all six university presidents, and even Republicans (with a special shout out to Rep. Larry Haler) were all invited to the table and all worked hard on the bill.  The representatives from the Washington Student Association have been especially courageous in working on SHB 1795.

When it comes time to vote, both in the House Ways and Means Committee and on the House floor, members would do well to recognize the broad support that SHB 1795 has across all parts of the higher education community.

1666 was the year of the Great Fire of London and it is also the number of the other bill that addresses tuition-setting authority and financial aid for public universities.  At first blush, SHB 1795 and SHB 1666 seem relatively similar.  But a closer look shows that SHB 1666 essentially gives up on the idea of high quality public universities in Washington.

 

SHB 1666 was created by the Governor’s Task Force on Higher Education Funding, which was dominated by business elites.  We recognize that from time to time here at the blog we have been a little hard on our brothers and sisters who toil in the  executive suites, so we’d like to take this opportunity to thank those folks for the work they put in on the Task Force and for their genuine interest in university education.

But SHB 1666 is not the answer.  It gives open-ended tuition-setting authority to the universities and it only addresses financial aid by creating a private endowment (with a tax credit kick back to corporations) that will never come close to meeting the needs of tens of thousands of Washington’s students.  This is a formula for the privatization of our public universities.  And the private university model is one that includes a lot of rich kids and enough working class and up-from-poverty students (supported by federal financial aid and the sort of private philanthropy that 1666 proposes) to make the brochures look “diverse.”  Private universities do not create nor do they nourish the broad middle class that makes for a strong economy and a stable democracy.

Our public universities are already on the brink, with less than half of our funding coming from the state.  If we want to hold out any hope for public universities in Washington’s future, the legislature should pass Substitute House Bill 1795.