Informed Advocates of the University of Washington

Governor Inslee opposed tuition cuts, but I believe they are essential if we are to keep a college education within reach of middle class families. When I went to college, my parents paid part of my tuition and I worked to pay for the balance and living expenses. College costs have grown so much that, today, that is no longer possible. As governor, I want to ensure a college education is available to all qualified students. I support efforts to lower tuition further and increase funding for low income students and will make it a priority as we address the full spectrum of education funding.

Governor Inslee’s book one budget proposed cutting higher education funding by 10%. That is the wrong direction for Washington. I understand and appreciate our universities’ contribution to Washington’s current and future economy, and will work with university presidents to develop a more sustainable funding plan for higher education.

This is a huge part of why I’m running for governor. Right now, Washington is one of the top states for producing high-skilled jobs but one of the lowest for producing high-skilled graduates. Our STEM programs are bursting at the seams with students who want to develop a career in STEM. It may require changing how the state funds higher education to accommodate the higher costs of some STEM programs, but such an investment will be an essential part of my plan for education in Washington.

I created and worked on a bill that would create the Washington Advance Loan Program that would provide low interest loans for students underserved by the SNG or that didn't qualify. I worked with major universities and the student lobbyists to make sure that the bill did not take funds that would otherwise go to the SNG. I have shown, and will continue to show, my commitment to fully funding the State Need Grant and increasing the state investment in higher education to a responsible level.

Last year we tried to pass legislation that would have funded the SNG for those 30,000 eligible students. I will continue to work on passing that legislation this session.

This issue has a lot to do with the way our top academics and professors are being called to other states due to higher salary opportunities. In order to address this shortage issue, we will need to also address raising salaries for our faculty.

To clarify, I'm willing to look at increasing funding as we improve how efficiently we are spending those dollars. I introduced a bill last session that would facilitate 8000 additional students to have their college educations paid for by the State Need Grant with no additional cost to the state. I will re-introduce it this session. There are many other ways we can get more bang for our buck for all students, including State Need Grant recipients. See my response to question 7.

Using the free market principle of supply and demand, I'd need to see what would make economic sense.

Yes! I am committed to greatly increasing access to the opportunities of higher education to every resident of Washington. Our state does not have an affordable tuition policy. I was the sponsor of the original legislation to reduce tuition and provide funding under a proposed policy that tuition at our research universities should not exceed ten percent of median household income. This was the level of tuition before the Great Recession. Tuition is now twice the median household income. The “cost of attendance” for one student to attend UW is estimated to be affordable – without debt – only for families earning significantly above $100,000. We need to provide State Need Grants to the 30,000 students who are eligible and unserved; and, to expand eligibility and funding to the many students whose family incomes are far below the level at which they can afford the full cost of attendance.

As a UW faculty member (School of Public Health) I constantly see how we lose and fail to attract top quality faculty and graduate students. These are perspectives I share with fellow legislators (as one of just two public university faculty members in the Legislature). Without increasing starting pay, we can’t attract faculty because of the much higher cost of housing and living here in Seattle in comparison to most peer institutions. This pay disparity grows significantly over time due to our having failed as a state to invest in faculty compensation increases. I will be working to have on-going funding to ensure faculty pay does not continue to “compress.” We also can’t attract world class faculty unless we reinvest in graduate education with research and teaching assistantships for graduate students. Top faculty simply won’t go to a university (or stay) when the school is unable to provide graduate student slots and support. Graduate students often stay and grow families and careers where they go to school. But, we have failed to have a state policy to provide support for graduate education.

I was the author of the legislative language committing our state to the goal proposed by the Washington Student Achievement Council for 70% of our state’s residents to have postsecondary workforce certification or a college degree. We have to make a tremendous commitment to provide real opportunities for Washington residents to obtain those degrees and certifications because we are one of the very worst states when it comes to providing higher education opportunities to our own residents. Instead of providing opportunities for residents to have affordable access to higher education, our employers import huge numbers of new employees with the degrees and certifications they need. In 2015, I was asked to develop our House Democrats’ comprehensive proposal to address the severe teacher shortage we face in our state (and nationally). Most of the elements of the comprehensive program developed with our teacher education colleges, teachers, agencies, school districts and others became law. The new law includes my proposal to have a conditional grant program enabling lower income college students who go into teaching fields with severe shortages to have their junior and senior years tuition free if they successfully teach for a full five years. Not only does this program help address our teacher shortage and reduce the high student debt burden faced by many young teachers, but it also will help us diversify our next generation of teachers to reflect the fact that our public school student body is becoming far more diverse. This year, I am bringing together our public higher ed institutions’ teacher education colleges to have a major investment package in expanding teacher college enrollment. Simply put, we can’t lower class sizes as required by the State Supreme Court’s McCleary decision unless we dramatically increase the number of college students who get their teaching degrees and certifications in shortage areas, such as special education or bilingual education. In order to meet our obligations to provide the opportunities of higher education, we need to provide dedicated funding for higher education as we increase funding for our public K-12 schools.

We need to ensure that we have a well educated work force and must ensure that the low income students also receive the education required in our innovative work force.

I ma supportive of being competitive but would want to see who are they comparing themselves with to ensure we are on a peer to peer basis of comparable.

I also serve as an advisor to the the Lake Washington School District STEM Start up program.

During the upcoming legislative session, certain legislators will attempt to fulfill the obligations of McCleary through cuts to funding for higher education. I believe that we can fund McCleary and still increase investment in our public universities. The State Need Grant (SNG) is a critical program enabling youth whose families have low incomes to obtain an education that leads to a living wage. Increasing funding for the SNG program will undoubtedly help to resolve some of the inequities of our higher education system. As a legislator, I will prioritize increasing public investment in the SNG during budget negotiations. My experience working directly on some of the most challenging public social problems of our time – including homelessness, healthcare access, and affordable housing – lays the groundwork for me to become an effective state representative on behalf of students in higher education.

Educator compensation in higher ed is a major issue in our state and as a legislator, I will prioritize this issue. I am proud to have received the sole endorsements of SEIU 925, UAW 4121 and AFT AFL-CIO. These union organizations work to improve compensation and benefits for college and university employees across the state. As a legislator, I will seek to secure competitive wages and benefits for higher ed faculty members across our state.

As an employer in the field of behavioral healthcare, I am acutely aware of the need for workforce expansion and stabilization. The education and STEM sectors face similar challenges. This is a critical issue for me. I am proud to be endorsed by healthcare workers and educators focused on solving this challenge, including SEIU 775, 925 & 1199NW; Washington State Nurses Association; and Washington Education Association. Fully funding higher education academics, infrastructure and financial assistance will make a significant contribution to ensuring that we meet workforce demand. I will strongly advocate for fully funding higher education. I will work with stakeholders in relevant postsecondary education policy experts, with major employers in Washington, and other stakeholders to develop creative ways to meet workforce needs.

Yes, it is critical that students be afforded the opportunity to attend college by increasing the State Need Grant to eligible students to ensure that college is affordable and accessible to all.

Faculty salaries must be competitive in order to recruit, retain and attract world-class faculty. As a recent graduate with my Master's in Public Administration this June 2016, I invested significant time and resources into my education. Having high-quality faculty is essential to preparing a highly skilled workforce that can advance our State's health, vitality, economy and well-being.

As a top academic institution in the State of Washington, UW and other universities must be equipped with resources to build capacity to meet identified needs in our various job sectors especially in critical fields such as healthcare, teaching and STEM. 2020 is only a few years away, this critical issue must be addressed now.

I support using new tax revenues from our growth to fund the State Need Grant to help more students go to college and be trained to participate in our state workforce. I also support partnerships between colleges and industry to provide scholarships and paths to career jobs for our state's college students.

I would prioritize as a state law maker how we can make our universities and colleges more effective, including where we need to raise the pay for faculty to ensure that we have the specialties we need to meet the workforce needs of the future, as well we have the expertise in business and other fields to promote entrepreneurship and creativity among our next generations.

It is critical that we equip our next generations to be adept not only in the STEM fields, but also in the STEAM -- including the arts. We need science, health care and teaching professionals. We also need entrepreneurs, architects, fine crafts people to address all aspects of our future job growth. I will make this a statewide priority.

I remain deeply committed to fully funding our broad public obligation around financial aid including state need grant, Passport to College and the range of other programs.

I have a strong record of fighting for access, affordability and quality in higher education.

A strong capital and operating budget effort is essential.

As a recent college graduate myself (non-traditional), I understand the financial pressures that are placed upon students to obtain education and training needed to succeed in the 21st Century.

I would support fully funding the State Need Grant, as well as continuing to lower resident undergraduate tuition. Student loans are a huge issue that many people my age face and it's something that needs to be solved.

I do not know enough of the details to make a opinion on this that I could defend.

Yes, but I think this is lower in priority than K-12 education funding and finding a sustainable fix to the growth in the cost of education.

It would be informative to know which "peer institutions" were surveyed, of course.

The capital budget needs of institutions in Washington are identified through a competitive process before recommendations come to the legislature. The UW will undoubtedly make this a priority, given the statement above.

As Chair of the House Higher Ed Committee, I led the battle to restore full funding for our State Need Grant. Also needed, fully funding our state WorkStudy program and the specialized tuition support programs for students in particular, high demand curricula. More, we need to stop the "tuition farming" of grad students.

We're hemorrhaging high quality faculty. Just like in our K12 system where we have to radically increase teacher and staff compensation, we need to greatly boost compensation for our higher ed professionals. This definitely must include investing in full time faculty and limiting the use of adjuncts.

The key point is that we must grow our university and college system to accommodate much higher student loads. We are becoming an undereducated state.

I have been a proponent of SNG funding during my time in the legislature and believe that we should work to narrow the SNG gap in 2017.

I have proposed legislation to create a performance funding system in Washington four-year higher education that would incentivize high-demand degree completion.

We need to make a further commitment to higher education and provide needed resources for those who need them most.

Teacher pay must be competitive in order to retain world-class educators in our State.

The Legislature must make a commitment to making sure students have access to classes in these areas.

We have priced out too many students who want to go to college. I support funding SNG and am willing to vote for new revenue to accomplish this.

I would love to do it, but given state employee collective bargaining and other funding demands, I am just not sure it is achievable.

We need to begin to increase our emphasis on STEM, but we cannot achieve all that is needed in one biennium. And I do not want to put other areas at risk. As a former English teacher, I want the STEM students to be able to read and write with excellence, too.

It should be something we continue to look at every session until this need is met.

I'll also focus on reducing student loan debt.

The quality of instruction is critical for UW to maintain its standing.

Beyond a formal degree, we must focus on skills and education, including professional certifications.

I am prioritizing all education in our state of Washington.

However, I am not willing to raise taxes in order to accomplish this.

UW pays rather handsomely already as I understand.

In the next session, K-12 education funding should be the primary priority, in accordance with the McCleary court decision. Until our K-12 issues have been fully addressed, I cannot see that increasing STEM course access at universities is the need at this time. There are many public and private colleges/universities in the Western US to serve motivated students to locate the programs they wish to pursue to meet their educational and career goals until a future session.

Increasing opportunities in these fields is something we have talked about for the past couple of years. We recognize the importance of getting our students prepared to fill these critical areas.

I would need more information regarding the State Need Grant. I would also like to evaluate the other funding priorities of the state's universities to see if additional allocations to the needs grants could be bolstered by reallocation of funds from less important programs within the universities.

Many factors are considered when a top tier person decides to locate at a new university. I would like to evaluate some of those considerations and decide whether there are reasons that could be remedied beyond a simple pay incentive alone.

Evaluation of student and industry demand and finding alternative resources to meet these demands may find solutions that have not previously been considered. Partnering with critical industries and leveraging their resources may reduce the immediate shortages. New buildings and staffing those buildings may become the outmoded way to deliver education in the new paradigm.

I benefited from the SNG while a student during the period of 2006-10. I also support tuition free higher education for public colleges and universities.

But only if it goes to those here legally who will major in something marketable such as business or engineering (STEM) rather than in liberal arts or the humanities which tend to indoctrinate more than educate. .

There are other priorities. If "high-quality teaching" promotes homosexuality and transgenderism and vilifies Christianity, and if graduates think our nation was founded as a democracy, rather as a republican form of government as stated in the US Constitution, then they are missing some of the basic knowledge needed to vote wisely.

Starting at a community college is more affordable than starting at a university, yet community colleges usually offer basic classes needed for STEM such as physics and calculus. Also, healthcare needs to focus more on nutrition than drugs or vaccines, more on chiropractic care than on surgeries, more on prevention, thus providing better health at less than half the cost.

These programs are part of a comprehensive plan to improve education access to all people in Washington State. I believe we should go above and beyond K-12 education and ensure that people have the opportunity to get post graduate or trade skills education to prepare them for a career that will set them on their way to a successful future. I would also work on improving cost-effectiveness of curriculum to ensure students dollars spent go further, lowering the financial burden.

It is important that our schools can compete for the brightest and most effectual talent to educate our students.

Not only do we need to provide ample class space for these courses, but we need to ensure that students graduating high school are prepared in them as well. I will work with educators and industry leaders to promote these programs and to ensure proper funding and pathways to jobs are in place to set our students up for success.

I have served on the Higher Education committee for 8 years. This is and has been a problem.

Working to fully fund the K-12 system will be the number one priority of the legislative body this year. While I would like to be extremely positive regarding the rest of the system's financial responsibility, I must be honest and see what happens in the K-12 funding.

This is one of my top priorities. My friends who work in tech in Seattle have thousands of open head count they can't fill. They will hire every single UW grad from computer science. We need to open more slots.

If we are going to keep the American dream alive, a top-notch, affordable college education must be accessible to every student. As someone who deeply believes in the transformative power of education, I see higher education playing a crucial role in giving students the tools they need to fulfill their dreams. I was proud to support decreased tuition as part of a bipartisan compromise to ensure students in both two and four year schools benefited and that it was funded sustainably in the budget. In each of my biennial budgets I have proposed increases to the State Need Grant to ensure we are serving more students and broadening access for all Washingtonians. It’s also why I fought so hard and was proud to pass and sign the Washington State Dream Act, which ensured eligibility for the State Need Grant regardless of documentation status. I will absolutely work with you and others to continuing broadening access to higher education throughout the next four years and I will absolutely consider further investments in the State Need Grant as I build my budget this fall.

I am proud that we have stopped the disinvestment in our colleges and universities and that we have taken historic strides towards making college more affordable by passing the largest tuition cut in state history. However, with unemployment near its lowest point in seven years, I believe that our higher education system must now play a vital role in helping to buffer against our economy’s boom and bust cycle. To do this we must continue building back support for higher education and deepen the collaboration between higher education and employers to build on the skillsets needed in our new economy. Part of building back that support means ensuring that there is appropriate staffing throughout our higher education system. Not only did shrinking budgets reduce the number of teachers in the higher education system, but it also led to an overreliance on adjunct positions. If we are going to attract the highest quality talent to support our students then our education system has to offer secure positions with competitive pay. I am proud to have secured pay increases for all state employees during my time as governor and I will keep working with the University of Washington and the other post-secondary institutions to ensure that we continue to recruit and retain the world-class faculty for every post-secondary path a student takes.

Absolutely. In my time as governor we have prioritized expansion for the University of Washington and invested a lot into pouring more concrete, building out more space, and providing more support for faculty and staff to help the University of Washington deal with the increased demand in these exact fields. In the 2015 budget, the University of Washington received over $100 million to support faculty and staff, and expand computer science and engineering offerings. Over $32 million was allocated for a new Computer Science and Engineering building, as well as several million for renovations to the School of Nursing Simulation Learning Lab and the design for the Health Sciences Interprofessional Education Classroom. We have accomplished a lot in four years but there is more we can and must do to recruit and retain world-class professors in these fields while ensuring there is enough space for them to teach and train students for these excellent fields of study. I will continue to work with legislators and stakeholders to build on these accomplishments over the next four years to widen the pipeline for students to pursue a career in these great fields.

I would need to review what amount of money is currently being allocated to this fund and what the total needs are for the fund. Does the fund include monies available to those under the DACA program or are those individuals left off the calculation. After having all of the numbers and facts could better answer the question.