No one should be surprised that Washington State University recently announced a 16 percent tuition increase for fall 2012. Washington’s public colleges and universities are responding to a 2011-13 legislative budget that cut higher education funding by $685.5 million. That budget included a provision for tuition increases now being enacted – estimated at $376.4 million – to help schools partially offset the reduction in funding. Locally that will mean tuition increases of 14 percent this fall at The Evergreen State College and 12 percent at South Puget Sound Community College.
State funding of higher education has gradually declined over the past two decades, but has dramatically dropped in the past few years. For instance, the state’s portion of Evergreen’s operational funding has slipped from 65 percent to 35 percent in just the past four years (it was 78 percent 20 years ago). Overall, the state’s public four-year institutions have lost nearly 50 percent of their state operating funds since 2009.
Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2012/05/16/v-print/2107098/state-help-for-higher-education.html#storylink=cpy
http://www.theolympian.com/2012/05/16/2107098/state-help-for-higher-education.html
