Op-Ed: Governor’s Proposed Budget Imperils State Need Grants, Could Push College Education Out of Reach

By Sarah Reyneveld, Vice-President of the University of Washington (UW) Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS), and Jono Hanks, Director of the Office of Government Relations for the Associated Students of University Washington (ASUW)

While the media and legislative focus has been on tuition, the real student issue of the 2010 legislative session is the suspension of the state need grant, and other need and merit based financial aid programs crucial to maintaining accessibility at our state universities. There is a laundry list of critical financial aid programs that have been slated to be suspended in the Governor’s budget. With the media focus on tuition control, students are concerned that the suspension of these popular programs has fallen off the radar.

The Washington State Senate passed SB 6562, a bill that will provide some institutions of higher education with limited local control to set tuition, as the last order of business on Monday night, Feb. 15, 2010. This bill has been met with concern from students. Not only would it allow undergraduate tuition to double within 5 years. As formerly written, the bill did nothing to guarantee the maintenance of financial aid, including the state need grant. The focus seemed to shift slightly when Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle) sponsored an amendment to make all provisions in the bill contingent on the state need grant eligibility standard being maintained in future years. However, the amendment slid under the radar as coverage from media outlets was focused largely on tuition-setting control.

While the inclusion of the State Need Grant in the Governor’s budget and legislation like SB 6562 is an essential step, students are concerned that the reinstatement of this one program does not go far enough to provide lower and middle income families access to our state’s higher education institutions.

State Need Grants, which were slated for massive reductions in Governor Gregoire’s “book one” budget have garnered substantial press. And rightfully so: they are the most critical component of maintaining accessibility to higher education in our state. Yet the Governor’s proposed buyback in the book two budget has drawn attention away from other incredibly important financial aid programs still on the chopping block.

Students rally to "save work study" at the "Protect Our Future" rally on the Capitol steps, Feb. 15, 2010

Almost as crucial is the State Work Study Program, which provides not only financial aid to almost 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, but also provides the jobs crucial to surviving our current economic climate.  As employees, the students gain invaluable experience in their respective fields while their salary is split between the State and their employer, making them a bargain for many small businesses.  This program has been designated for complete suspension, putting all of these students’ graduation in doubt, while simultaneously robbing our communities of inexpensive and efficient labor.  Work Study is the only need-based program available to the graduate students of our state, and its suspension will only compound the competitive disadvantages our Washington businesses face due to a lack of professional degrees.

For instance, take occupational therapy student Kelsey Watters, who currently has a work study position with City of Seattle and wants to eventually work with children with autism and developmental disorders. She states: “Professionally, it is a huge support.  However, the work study position does not just offer me the professional support – it offers me that extra financial support that is extremely helpful in supplementing my loans.  I use this money to pay for the extras that come up throughout the school year – supplies for class, books, etc.  It would be very difficult to support myself on the loans I receive.”

Even more alarming is the proposed suspension of programs designed to bolster college participation rates among underrepresented and socioeconomically disadvantaged high school students.  Washington’s Gear Up Program, the only guide that many of these students have for continuing their education, has been slated for complete suspension. The loss of Gear Up would result in an unprecedented step backwards for a supposedly progressive state– a loss that will not only prevent educational engagement, but also perpetuate current lack of diversity seen in the management positions of both our state government and Washington’s private businesses.

Also completely cut out of the picture are the children of our foster care system, who, through the loss of the Passport for Foster Youth Promise Program, will see their only chance to attend our state colleges become a pipe-dream.  The state is breaking a promise to the hardest working and most gifted foster care children, individuals that simply do not have the financial resources necessary to attend our universities.

We would be remiss to not acknowledge the merit based state programs slated for suspension as well.  Receiving these extraordinarily competitive and prestigious awards should be the best day in a Washingtonian’s life. Yet it now looks like this day will instead be the worst for many recipients of the Washington Scholar and Washington Award for Vocational Excellence (WAVE) programs, among others.  Students have staked their entire future on the promises made by these grants, spurning Ivy League institutions and a myriad of alternate opportunities to stay in Washington for their college degrees, but now are being completely hung out to dry.  Since when is accepting a state scholarship a gamble for the best and brightest students of Washington’s high schools? “This is a program that is supposed to reward the best and brightest of our state, not punish them for choosing to pursue their higher education here in Washington,” noted Sam Shaddox, a graduating Washington Top Scholar.

These cuts, together with complete elimination of other aid programs, including Child Care Matching Grants, Health Care Professionals, and Future Teacher Programs, paint a very bleak picture for current and future students of higher education.

The Child Care Matching Grants program has been a top priority of the Washington Student Association (WSA) for the past three years. While our state has been paying lip service to increasing degree production, they have cut the Child Care Matching Grant program which provides access to child care, the third highest barrier to degree production, for the neediest students.

With advocacy from students around the state, the WSA was able to secure $1.1 million for these grants in 2008 in the budget that passed the Legislature, later to be vetoed by the Governor. Sadly, the Governor’s budget entirely suspends what is left of the modest program of $75,000 statewide. If the program is suspended many student parents will never aspire to or have a change to complete their higher education degrees. UW graduate student Sachiko Armour confirms the importance of the program when he states: “To put it bluntly, if I were unable to receive the funds I currently get, I would not be able to afford childcare for my children, which would not permit me to attend school at this point in my life.”

We are writing to ask the Governor and the Legislature to think twice before they suspend the financial aid programs that open the doors to higher education for all students in this state. As these cuts cast a pall on the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of every child and student in Washington, so do they dim the future of our state.

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