OLYMPIA — In a role reversal, Democrats in Olympia want to halt tuition increases at the state’s colleges and universities, while Republicans are proposing modest increases of about 2 percent a year.
The News Tribune reported GOP leaders — who control the state Senate with the aid of one conservative Democrat — say the state’s tuition policy has finally stabilized after years of double-digit tuition hikes under Democrats. The budget Republicans have proposed for the next two years focuses on adding more slots for students, while continuing a plan lawmakers approved in 2015 to tie tuition increases to growth in the state’s median wage.
Democrats say they want to keep tuition costs down for the next two years. The budget plan House Democrats released this week would spend $56.3 million over two years to freeze undergraduate resident tuition, along with $72.7 million to extend state financial aid to 6,000 additional students.
The policy flip has not gone unnoticed by lawmakers, especially Senate Republicans. GOP leaders were the first to propose freezing tuition in 2013, as well as cutting tuition in 2015 — policies that ultimately won the approval of the full Legislature and became law.
