Republican and Democratic Lawmakers Work Together To Cut College Tuition Costs In WA State

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Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington state reached a compromise agreement on Monday, passing a budget that would lower tuition costs 15 to 20 percent for public university students. The historic measure would also increase teacher’s salaries. The bill includes eliminating some tax exemptions to help offset the cost of raising teacher pay and cutting school tuition.

The bill passed through both the Democratic controlled Washington House and the Republican controlled State Senate. In addition to helping out college students, the measure would also add 1.3 billion dollars for K-12 education, including money to reduce classroom sizes in grades K-3 and funds to expand full-day kindergarten.

Republican leaders actually made cutting tuition a legislative priority. Democrats originally opposed the plan, preferring to simply freeze tuition costs and increase financial aid allotments for students instead. However, Democrats eventually agreed to lowering tuition costs, when Republicans agreed to close tax loopholes in order to pay for the tuition cuts.

The proposal still awaits Governor Jay Inslee’s (D) signature, but Inslee is considered likely to sign it into law. Students at the University of Washington and Washington State University would save over 2,000 dollars in tuition costs over a two year period. Students at the other public universities in the state would save between 1500 and 2000 dollars over the same time period.

With the tuition rollback, Washington becomes the only state in the country to cut public university tuition costs in 2015. Remarkably the feat was accomplished by bipartisan compromise. While “compromise” has increasingly become a dirty word in the hyper-partisan political environment of today, Washington state lawmakers have demonstrated that when the two parties decide to work together to help their constituents, good bills can be passed.

Hopefully, the federal Republican lawmakers in Washington D.C. can look to state lawmakers in “the other Washington” for some pointers on how to govern effectively. Legislative compromise is about to make college a little less expensive for students in Washington state. Senators and Representatives in the Congress and in other states should take note.

Keith Brekhus

Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.