State must reverse course on funding for colleges - the Olympian

The Evergreen State College President Les Purce has joined his five colleagues at the state’s other public universities to support a plan for averting further tuition increases over the next two years. It’s a good plan the Legislature should try to adopt. Lawmakers might hesitate – facing another $900 million shortfall and the Supreme Court pressing for progress on basic education funding – but it’s time to reinvest, before a college education becomes unaffordable. State budget cuts to higher education have driven 14 percent tuition increases in each of the last four years at Evergreen and similar increases at the other institutions. Cumulatively speaking, Evergreen students saw their tuition fees skyrocket by 70 percent, even though the college still needed to trim $6 million from its operational budget. The state’s support of higher education at Evergreen has dropped from 65 percent to 35 percent, forcing students and their families to make up the difference. http://www.theolympian.com/2013/01/11/2380365/state-must-reverse-course-on-funding.html