Financial aid raise proposed

Kayla Webley
2005-01-19
The Daily

Members of the Washington State House Higher Education Committee listened yesterday as agencies and stakeholders pushed for the state to fund student financial aid in full, as in previous years.

The 2005-07 budget proposal calls for a 5 percent tuition increase at all public schools in Washington State, to be equaled by matching funds for financial aid from the state. In addition, the universities may raise tuition by an additional 4 percent, provided they come up with the financial aid funds to match the increase.

Les Purce, president of Evergreen State College in Olympia and chair of the Council of Presidents, which represents Washington's six baccalaureate institutions, urged legislators to fully fund financial aid even if the universities choose to raise tuition above the 5 percent margin.

"Even in the toughest times this legislation has managed to maintain the relationship between the [financial aid] support and the increase in tuition. We simply ask that the state continue that practice," Purce said in his testimony to the committee. "We would have to have the resources to cover that and we simply do not."