By Rosa Rice-Pelepko, AS Legislative Liaison
College is expensive, and for students, financial burden and stress can impact all aspects of life. Conversely, financial aid and other opportunities can drastically increase college education attainment. For public institutions, the state legislature plays a key role in the cost of education, and making college affordable for students. The Washington Legislature has the ability to set tuition rates, allocate funding students, provide tuition waivers, and grant money to on campus programs that will allow students to access critical services or resources at low cost. You may have noticed, but this year tuition increased 2% from last year, and is set to increase 2.2% this coming fall.
College affordability is always forefront of the legislative agenda for the ASWWU and the Washington Student Association. This year, we have various affordability priorities we are pushing that will provide students with financial support.
The Washington State Need Grant, the largest single source of aid for low income students at the state level, has been drastically underfunded the past several years. Statewide, this impacts around 21,000 students who are eligible but do not receive the aid. A total of 3,860 Western students are eligible for the State Need Grant, 36% of whom do not receive it. If you aren’t awarded the grant with your financial aid package, it is possible that you would not even know you are eligible. Fully funding the State Need Grant in this year’s budget is a top ask for students at the Capitol.
Wednesday February 14th, was the House of Origin Cutoff in the Washington Legislature! Any bills that was not passed out of the house of origin floor, are now dead for this session.
House Bill 1488, which would expand financial aid opportunities to undocumented students and U and T visaholders which are granted to some who have been victims of certain crimes or trafficking, passed the House floor on Tuesday evening, the final vote count barely breaking the party line at 56 – 42. Among those who voted nay are some 42nd’s Representatives Luanne Van Werven and Vincent Buys. Kristine Lytton and Jeff Morris of the 40th legislative district (LD) both voted yes. This means that this bill is halfway through to making its way to the governor’s desk! A similar version in the Senate passed a few weeks into session, so we’ll be pushing the two of these bills as they progress in the opposite house.
Among dead bills this session include Senate Bill 6101. Dubbed the evergreen investment scholarship, 6101 would essentially provide free college education for those who make equal to or less than the state median family income by 2025. Unfortunately the bill did not make cut off, and was not voted on by the Senate Floor. The ASWWU advocates for steps towards free college education, and so I testified in favor of this bill in its first hearing in the Senate. We’d love to see future proposals such as this one in coming years.
In addition to policy bills, changes in the state funding or other business can be written into the state budget. Both the House and Senate write their own version of the budget. Being a supplemental budget year, there is not much additional funding to go around during session, as most of our state budget was allocated for last year. However, the fiscal forecast released last week indicated a larger budget than expected, so we are urging legislators to prioritize State Need Grant with this wiggle room in the budget. Please take a moment to reach out to your legislator through call or email to let them know that you support fully funding the State Need Grant this year. You can call the legislative hotline at 800-562-6000 or find individual contact info at http://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/.
I hope you are as excited about this session as I am! Please feel free to contact me with any comments or inquires about the legislative session at as.legislative.liaison@wwu.edu. Additionally, the Legislative Affairs Council meets weekly from 5-7pm in VU 567. Feel free to join to learn about what we do and how you can help shape the legislative action of your campus.