The Truth about Tuition Reduction:

College access and affordability have been a priority for the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus since taking control of the Senate in 2013. That commitment to higher education continues with the implementation of the nationally unprecedented public college and university tuition reduction in state history.

Making higher education a priority was a hard-fought endeavor considering that House Democrats and the governor’s office proposed budgets that gutted higher education. This put the burden of skyrocketing tuition on the backs of working families and students, and contributed to mounting student debt.

2013 – Majority Coalition Caucus institutes first tuition freeze in over 20 years.

2014 – Majority Coalition Caucus continues the tuition freeze for two years, something not done in over 30 years.

January 2015 – Majority Coalition Caucus proposes cutting tuition at state colleges and universities and tying tuition growth to what average Washingtonians can afford.

July 2015 – Washington’s two-year operating budget is adopted that implements a two-year tuition reduction known as the College Affordability Program (CAP). In the first year of the biennium all state higher education institutions see a 5 percent reduction in tuition. Tuition growth is tied to the state’s average wage and higher education institutions are guaranteed funding in law, removing tuition setting from the budget.
2016 – Final phase of tuition reduction goes into effect with an additional 15 percent tuition cut at regional universities and 10 percent at the state’s research institutions.

May 2016 – Senate fulfills the promise to support colleges and universities by backfilling for lost tuition revenue as a result of tuition reductions.

What you will not hear:

• House Democrats and the governor’s office proposed budgets that gutted higher education.
• When the Senate’s plan came up for a vote, half of the Senate Democrats voted against the proposal
• House Democrats actually proposed increasing tuition in one version of their 2015 budget.
• House Democrats pushed to forego backfilling colleges and universities for the tuition reduction in the 2016 supplemental budget.

Washington students will save…