A conversation with Seattle
But with Washington State facing a $1.3-billion budget deficit, the mood has changed substantially at the Capitol: “Conversations have gotten increasingly pessimistic,” Margaret Shepherd, director of state relations for the University of Washington, told the Seattle Times. “Legislators are telling us no new cuts would be a victory.” Continue reading Student Loan Debt Will Bury Us All, Spring 2013 Edition
House Bill 1795 passed by wide margins in the House and Senate, and Governor Gregoire has said she’ll sign it. For the next four years, from 2011-12 to 2015-16, the schools will be able to set tuition as they see fit. The bill does require the schools to provide financial aid to lower-income students, paid for out of the tuition increases, and sets a minimum of 4,000 students for the University of Washington’s in-state freshman enrollment, beginning 2012-13. It also allows the schools to price degrees differently, to account for the disparity between the cost of a liberal arts major and any field that will allow you pay back student loans. Continue reading Will Control of Tuition Save Washington’s Public Universities?
The great cry of outrage at the University of Washington’s acceptance of higher-paying out-of-state students over in-state applicants gets an economic reality check: After years of declining public support, the UW has been effectively transitioning toward becoming a prestigious private school that seeks the best students nationally and internationally. It will be a school, you suspect, that Tim Eyman would not get into. But where, then, will state students go? Continue reading Bow Down to the University of Washington’s Budget Woes