Tuition increases and perhaps even some authority for WSU to decrease tuition for some students began to dominate higher education discussions as the Washington Legislature approached the halfway mark of its 105-day regular session. Both the House and Senate tuition bills currently share many similarities. However, both still have a long way to go in the legislative process. They are difficult to evaluate with Senate and House biennial operating budget proposals for WSU still kept under wraps. The tuition bills still face the scrutiny of fiscal committees and votes on the floors of each house. House Appropriations members have been leery of bills like these that give limited university authority to raise or lower tuition.
Both bills set a "base" tuition increase of 4 percent for next fall and 3.2 percent for Fall, 2000. That means tuition at WSU, which is now $3,396 per year for a resident undergraduates, would increase by $135 next fall and another $113 the following year. Senate Higher Education Chair Jeanne Kohl-Welles pushed a bill through her committee (Second Substitute Senate Bill 5592) this week that provides an across-the board "base" tuition increase based on a three-year average increase in Washington per capita income. This was the tuition level recommended by the Higher Education Coordinating Board. For the next two years, the base tuition increase is expected to be 4 percent and 3.2 percent respectively. House Higher Education Co-chairs Don Carlson, R-Vancouver, and Phyllis Kenney, D-Seattle, have passed legislation out of their committees (House Bill 1528) with the same "base" increases. This is similar to the 4 percent "base tuition" increases that the 1997 Legislature passed for resident undergraduates for this current academic year. But if either of the bills moving through the Legislature becomes law, the base tuition level will be only part of the consideration as the Legislature considers giving institutions authority to adjust the tuition for their students from the base number.
This week, separate House and Senate policy committees adopted amendments to allow tuition to increase up to a total of 6.75 percent per year (including the base) for the University of Washington and Washington State University. That means the boards of regents have authority to levy an additional 2.75 percent increase in the coming year and an additional 3.55 percent increase in fall, 2000, for a maximum tuition increase of 6.75 percent each year. The governor had proposed an increase of up to 5 percent per year. The 6.75 percent number was calculated in each house based on actuarial estimates supplied by the new guaranteed tuition program, "GET." Discussion in each policy committee thus far indicates that legislators may consider 6.75 percent per year to be the absolute maximum increase for the coming biennium. WSU has made no statements on whether it would use this authority.
Each bill also gives authority to lower tuition. The House bill would give the WSU Board of Regents authority to lower tuition by two percent from the base rate, which could leave students with just a two percent tuition increase for the coming year. The Senate bill provides unlimited authority for WSU and other institutions to lower tuition. Within the guidelines of either bill, tuition can be adjusted for categories of students by such factors as the time of day the classes are offered, the day of the week, by programs, residency, etc. Theoretically, the Board of Regents will be able to set a different tuition rate for a Communications major as opposed to a Business major. The House bill allows tuition rates to be either raised or lowered for specific categories of students within each band. The Senate bill only allows the rate to be lowered. The Senate bill also includes an amendment requested by WSU that emphasizes the legislature`s intent to maintain a constant relationship between the cost of instruction and state general fund support for higher education. Tuition currently accounts for about 41 percent of the cost of education at WSU, up from 33 percent 10 years ago. In other words, the Legislature is shifting more of the costs of education on students.
The WSU Reaction - Low Tuition and Adequate State Funding Is Still the Best Policy. Over the last decade, the cost of tuition, adjusted for inflation, has increased 41 percent while the amount of state funding for each student by the institutions has declined. WSU could support the modest tuition increases now under consideration by the Legislature if there was an adequate state-funding base that would guarantee that students would benefit from the increased tuition they are asked to pay. WSU strongly supports the Senate bill`s non-binding provision of freezing the proportion of tuition to the cost of instruction. Following closure of the Legislative session, each institution`s governing board should have the flexibility within a band established by the Legislature, to increase or decrease tuition for individual programs or groups of programs, similar to that proposed by the House bill. Tuition should not be seen as a single solution to funding faculty salaries as some legislators have advocated. It may take as much as a five percent tuition increase on WSU students to generate enough funding for a 1 percent faculty salary increase. WSU is urging a state budget that includes salary increases to close the gap with competing institutions, some program enhancements for research university missions, continuing its commitment to the state need grant program, no general fund tuition offsets, and no unfunded mandates. WSU believes tuition rates can differentiate between institutions but it is preferred that this differential should be determined by the institutions themselves. The state should not mandate the differential. This may give WSU the flexibility to hold its tuition rates lower than institutions that support high tuition policies.
