With the Washington legislative session wrapping to a close, new legislation will allow local higher education institutions to utilize new recruitment and planning tools.
One measure gives higher ed outlets access to more high school student information. Another moves forward by six months a timeframe to set tuition rates — a budgeting benefit for students and institutions alike. Additionally, several bills focused on student welfare will pass.
“Overall, it’s been a very good session, the House and Senate have each supported some of our top priorities, and we’ve been successful in shepherding some important legislation across the finish line in partnership with others,” said Nora Selander, Western Washington University’s director of government relations, at the April 14 Board of Trustees meeting.
Western is particularly excited about the passage of Senate Bill 5593, which enables higher education institutions — including universities, community colleges and trade schools — to access data from high school students with the purpose of informing them of postsecondary educational opportunities.
“There’s a universe of about 75,000 graduating high school seniors in Washington,” Selander said. “Right now, we reach about 30,000 of them. The gap is about 45,000 students, and there are some big equity issues baked into that.”
Currently, universities and colleges work with the College Board — a nonprofit organization that provides SAT, ACT and AP testing to high school students — to access information about college-bound high school students. The new bill will create a data-sharing agreement with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, allowing higher education institutions to access information for all high school students, not just the ones who have taken College Board exams.
“That particular piece of legislation would put us in a wonderful position — that’s critical information for us to be able to do the outreach and the messaging to all of the state students,” said Shelli Soto, Western’s associate vice president for Enrollment Management, at the meeting.
The bill has passed both the House and the Senate as of April 12.
Additionally, Gov. Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5079 on March 30. The bill requires the state Office of Financial Management to determine the maximum tuition that can be raised for students at institutions of higher education by Oct. 1 — six months earlier than before. The new date enables Western to determine costs and provide students with accurate estimates of upcoming tuition earlier in the year.
As in the past, the increase is “no more than the average annual percentage growth rate in the median hourly wage for Washington” over the past 14 years, according to the current state law for tuition fees (RCW 28B.15.067).
At the meeting, Selander also called attention to two bills concerning students’ “basic needs.”
“There are more students with gaps in their basic needs accessing food and housing,” Selander said. “This is one of the top reasons students don’t persist to graduation, so the state is taking a keen look at it.”
Senate Bill 5702 will make permanent the Students Experiencing Homelessness and Foster Youth Pilot Program, which Western has participated in since 2019. The bill will require higher education institutions to provide access to laundry, storage, showers, technology and reduced-price meals, while also offering housing assistance and case management assistance.
The bill has passed the House and the Senate as of April 5.
House Bill 1559, which includes funding for student basic needs, has also passed the House and the Senate, with some requests removed.
“The House funded a third of our fiscal note relating to that bill, and the Senate responded by taking out about two-thirds of the work in that bill,” Selander said. “So, we will see how much work actually comes out of that bill.”
Selander said it looks like funding for meal vouchers and benefit navigators (employees who help students access assistance) will stay in the bill.
House Bill 1030 passed the Legislature, allowing the board of trustees at regional universities to offer applied doctorate degrees. Applied doctorates are not research-based and typically coincide with mastery of a specific field. For example, many local education superintendents and administrators have gone through Western’s 80-credit leadership program to receive a Doctor of Education.
Currently, school budgets are undergoing negotiations between allotments suggested by the governor, the House and the Senate.
Western will receive final funding in the next few days, but expects to receive between $10.5 million and $15.8 million for its operating budget, and between $75.2 million and $86.5 million for its capital budget.
