Despite coordinated effort, Senate Bill 6562 passes

BY ANTHONY JAMES | Sr. News Reporter
OLYMPIA - In addition to the 40 Central who bussed to the state’s capitol Monday, the Associated Students of Central Washington University Board of Directors (ASCWU-BOD) and a group of about five students met Sunday night at an Olympia hotel to detail the following day’s events.

Speakers included John McKean, ASCWU-BOD legislative liaison; Steve DuPont of Central government relations and WSA Executive Director Mike Bogatay. Students were briefed on the basics of meeting with legislators, tips on how to lobby lawmakers and the current status of important bills.

At the top of the priority list was to urge legislators to vote against Senate Bill 6562, which would allow university tuition-setting authority. The bill passed the Senate 29-19 in a late-night vote Monday.

The WSA lobbied since the beginning of the legislative session against SB 6562, for which WSA Executive Director Mike Bogatay had strong words.

“It’s the most ridiculous bill I’ve ever seen on the tuition front,” Bogatay said.
BOD members spent the morning meeting with legislators, including Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville. Schoesler’s 9th District includes both Washington State University and Eastern Washington University and he was a long-time member of the Senate Higher Education committee.
When asked by Jack Barry, ASCWU-BOD vice president of political affairs, if he would vote for SB 6562, Schoesler said “hell no.” Schoesler also co-sponsored an amendment with Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley, to require full funding of the state work-study program before tuition control could take effect. The amendment did not pass.

Schoesler said he was disappointed in the passage of the bill, but the bill still has a long process to become law.

“If the students show the same interest as they did in the Senate, there’s a chance of turning this thing around,” Schoesler said Tuesday.

Bogatay said Gov. Chris Gregoire’s latest budget proposal restored some of the state need grants cut in her original proposal, but state work study and other programs would still be lost.

The next step for SB 6562 is to pass through the House Higher Education Committee. Meagan Sharp, legislative assistant to committee chair Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, said the chances of the bill making its way out of committee are slim.

“Any tuition-setting bill that comes through her committee will die,” Sharp said.
House Bill 2946, the companion bill to SB 6562, died in Wallace’s committee.

SB 6562 in its original form would have let the board of trustees at each of Washington’s six public universities raise tuition. The bill, dubbed the Higher Education Access and Accountability Act, was scaled back in committee to only include the University of Washington, Washington State University and Western Washington University.

Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, chair of the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development committee, said administrators from the three universities had testified in favor of the bill at the committee hearing Feb. 5.

The bill, Kilmer said, “drives accountability” by requiring annual institutional performance agreements and requires additional tuition waivers.

Bills the WSA supported but that failed to be voted out of house of origin by Tuesday’s cutoff include Senate Bill 6409, which would redirect some lottery revenues to fund financial aid programs; House Bill 2822 and Senate Bill 6509, which would require possible tuition increases in budget proposals; House Bill 2979, which would establish a system of six-year performance agreements at each of the state’s public universities; and House Bill 2859, which would put in place processes to measure costs and make administrative changes.

But some dead bills are a cause for student celebration.

House Bill 6625, which would change tuition and financial aid provisions; House Bill 3057, which would eliminate the Higher Education Coordinating Board; and House Bill 2936, which would cut state need grants from five years to two years and require half of the grants to go to part-time students all failed to leave their house of origin by Tuesday’s cutoff.