One of the major headlines of the 2015-17 operating budget is the tuition reduction. According to the Seattle Times, Washington is “the only state in the country to lower tuition for public universities and colleges next year.” Further,

Both the UW and WSU said the budget backfilled the loss in tuition revenue that will result from the cuts. They were also pleased that a number of their top priorities were funded — including money to begin the accreditation process for a new medical school at WSU’s Spokane campus, money to keep UW’s medical-education program running in Spokane, and money for computer-science education at the UW.

The College Affordability Program was enacted in separate legislation (2ESSB 5954). (As enacted, there are some differences from the earlier version that we wrote about here.) It reduces resident undergraduate tuition by 5 percent for the public universities and community colleges in school year (SY) 2015-16. An additional reduction will occur in SY 2016-17 (see the table below). After that, tuition will be tied to the average annual growth rate in Washington’s median hourly wage.

The bill specifies that the Legislature “shall appropriate” to the institutions amounts that are equal to what they received in 2013-15, plus the loss of tuition revenues (adjusted for inflation going forward). This additional funding for the institutions totals $158.7 million (the distribution is shown in the table). Because tuition is reduced, state funding for financial aid is also reduced, saving $45.3 million.

As far as the Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) program goes, the bill sets the payout unit value for SY 2015-16 and SY 2016-17 at $117.82 (the same as for SY 2014-15). For future years,

the governing body shall make program adjustments it deems necessary and appropriate to ensure that the total payout value of each account on the effective date of this section is not decreased or diluted as a result of the initial application of any changes in tuition . . . .

As the GET program notes, this could include “a cash refund, additional units, a minimum payout value, or another solution that is deemed appropriate.” (More on the issues related to GET in a lower tuition environment here.)

2ESSB 5954 also requires the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to study alternative tuition growth factors, and it requires the GET committee to study the impact of tuition reductions on GET, options for establishing a separate college savings program, options for potentially linking GET to cost of attendance rather than tuition, and the state penalty for non-qualified withdrawals.

Aside from the College Affordability Program, the operating budget includes several other higher education policy changes. Including maintenance level, it increases higher education spending by $426.9 million over 2013-15 to $3.525 billion — maintaining higher education’s share of the state budget at 9.2 percent. Some highlights:

• $106.8 million to fund collective bargaining agreements and provide additional state support to cover employee compensation.
• $41.0 million for the Opportunity Scholarship.
• $11.1 million is saved by continuing the suspensions of the Washington Scholars and Washington Awards for Vocational Excellence programs, the Future Teachers Conditional Scholarship and loan repayment program, the Community Scholarship matching grants, and the Foster Care Endowed Scholarship. (All have been suspended since 2011.)
• UW gets $6.0 million for computer science enrollments; $8.0 million to expand the availability of medical residencies in Washington; and $9.0 million for continued operation of the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) medical school.
• WSU gets $1.6 million to create an electrical engineering program in Bremerton, $2.4 million to create software engineering and data analytic programs in Everett, and $2.5 million for a new medical school.
• EWU, CWU, and The Evergreen State College (TESC) get $1.5 million each for programs to increase degree completion.
• WWU gets $1.5 million to establish a computer and information systems security program at Olympic and Peninsula College.
• The Community and Technical College System (CTCS) gets $1.6 million for a worker training program at the Washington Aerospace Training and Research Center, $850,000 for Seattle Central College’s allied health programs, and $750,000 in one-time funding for Bellevue College to offer BS degrees in computer science.