Restoration of State Child Care Program a Significant Victory for GPSS

The state Higher Education Coordinating Board's (HECB) Child Care Matching Grant program, which provides financial aid for students with children across the state and was suspended in an earlier legislative session, has been restored to previous funding levels with the Legislature's passage of the state budget Wednesday night.

The reconciliation budget bill included $75,000 a year in funding over two years for the program, which is awarded to four-year and community and technical colleges as grants to match existing campus childcare investments.

The reinstatement is an unlikely and significant development in a legislative session in which lawmakers were facing a $5.3 billion budget shortfall and cut funding to higher education by $535 million. The University of Washington's operating budget was cut 33 percent, or $209 million.

"It is an amazing advocacy accomplishment for a suspended program to have its funding reinstated, given this budget climate," said Ben Henry, Graduate & Professional Student Senate (GPSS) Vice President and Washington Student Association (WSA) legislative liaison. "As a result, hundreds of students with children across the state, including at UW, will see fewer barriers to completing their degrees."

WSA Executive Director Mike Bogatay says it's a "done deal," as Gov. Chris Gregoire will not be able to veto this particular budget line item. "The Governor can only line-item veto what is written in the budget," he said. "Since it was included in carry-forward funding and not written in as budget proviso, she doesn't have the authority to (veto) it."

GPSS and WSA spent much of this legislative session advocating for restoration of this program, proposing what became Senate Bill 5795, which would have created a funding mechanism for the program via unclaimed lottery prizes. The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, would have funded the program at $250,000 a year.

"The Legislature did not fund Child Care Matching Grants at what we were asking for in the bill, but, given what we were up against this year, this was a huge victory for us," Henry said.

Said GPSS President Sarah Reyneveld: "The reinstatement of the program demonstrates that the state Legislature feels strongly that funding child care for student-parents is worth the investment, as it increases access and timeliness to degree completion."

Sam Shaddox, the student member of the HECB, says the program is "critical to maintaining educational opportunies for all Washington citizens, and this keeps the door open for more funding in the future. Each and every dollar this program receives goes toward maintaining accessibility to higher education for Washington's citizens. This is recognition by the Legislature that child-care funding is a barrier to higher education that has to be addressed."

While this program's reinstatement presents a win, it was a very rough session for graduate and professional student interests. Besides institutional funding cuts, funding for what had been the last remaining state financial aid program that benefits graduate students, State Work Study, was cut by $31 million, or 66 percent, to $16 million.

"While we are very saddened by this drastic reduction in funding and gutting of the program, GPSS considers the preservation of Work-Study as a victory, given the fact that the House originally proposed an outright suspension of the program," Henry said.

Other changes to the State Work Study program include increasing the required employer share of wages and discontinuing non-resident student eligibility for the program. Further, the HECB will adjust employer match rates and revise distribution methods to institutions by considering other factors such as off-campus job development, historical utilization trends, and student need.

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Past blog posts on childcare

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Past news coverage on this state program:

Daunting assignment: Students lobby against cuts to higher education

Seattle Times, March 15, 2011

Child Care funding bill stopped in state senate

The Daily, March 9, 2011

Child care bill would provide more aid for student-parents

The Daily, March 1, 2011

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Past news coverage on childcare on campus:

UW students bring kids to classes, seek child-care help
Seattle Times, May 9, 2011

Kids in the Quad
The Daily, May 5, 2011

New GPSS task force meets to discuss increase in resources on campus for student-parents
The Daily, January 31, 2011

The cost of care
The Daily, October 5, 2010

Student-parents concerned with campus resources
The Daily, September 29, 2010

Helping Students With Children Is About Opportunity and a Better Society

I wanted to share my response to a misinformed column that was published in The Daily last week, "Child care is not the UW’s responsibility" (May 19, 2011).

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By Ben Henry

Many years ago, an ambitious and talented college student was pursuing his dream of becoming a journalist. He had experience as a sports broadcaster and a knack for the gab, and many believed he had a bright future ahead of him.

But he would never get a shot at realizing his lifelong ambition. Alas, fatherhood beckoned, and he did what made the most sense to him at the time, dropping out of school to provide for his family.

That man, my father, went on to become a cab driver — an honorable profession, but not exactly the stuff dreams are made of. We led a difficult life, scrambling, on a seemingly month-to-month basis, to make rent.

For my father, his dream died with the birth of his son. But it didn’t have to be that way.

As a parent and public policy student at the University of Washington, I have had the opportunity to experience first-hand what UW does well and not so well for students with children. Like my father, I, too, have faced difficult choices. I am finishing a master’s degree while trying to raise my 2-year-old son, Jack, in a time when tuition and cost of living are exponentially greater than when parenthood unceremoniously claimed my father as a college dropout.

The Graduate & Professional Student Senate (GPSS), which has advocated for student-parents for many years, has been a leader in determining the unmet needs and telling the stories of this underserved population, through our Students With Children Awareness Day on May 9 and the Students With Children Census.

Through our efforts, we have found student-parents who are strung-out, desperate and barely surviving. We have encountered students who are walking an incredibly tight line between being able to pursue their dreams and having to drop out. These are students who are a baby’s sneeze away from having to miss an important exam, and must face the cold, hard reality that they aren’t spending the kind of time with their children that they so greatly desire.

It is for these parents that we are saddened by the shockingly uninformed rantings of columnist Peter Sessum ("Child care is not the UW’s responsibility," May 19). Mr. Sessum claims that “there is no secret part of being a student with a child that the rest of the campus needs to recognize.” Clearly, the despair that student-parents face are a secret to him, which is precisely why awareness needs to be generated.

Don’t just take my word for it.

"Most days when I am alone, I am crying from the stress,” says one undergraduate Business Administration student. “I consider quitting every few days. I have tons of guilt for not spending enough time with my kids, and for always being cranky and tired from studying all night. I feel like I am swimming upstream without an arm or leg."

One graduate Public Affairs student says she feels she is failing as a student and a mother.

“These feelings are cemented when advisors ask me how I feel about ‘underperforming in grad school,’” she said. “These feelings are cemented when I have to choose between going to class and nursing my sick infant. These feelings are cemented when I struggle to find the time to write my degree project when my son is buzzing around me in all his 2-year-old fury. The past two years have been a constant struggle, a constant feeling of failure, and the recurring relief of finding out I have just barely passed quantitative analysis or some other class.”

For most, parenthood significantly delays their graduation and impacts their academic performance. A preliminary analysis of the GPSS-sponsored census finds that 71 percent of all survey participants say parenthood will delay their graduation. Meanwhile, 63 percent say parenthood has a “moderate” or “significant” impact on their academic performance.

Readers who are not parents may ask, Why should I care? Why is it important for the greater University community to be aware of the challenges students with children face?

The fact is, parents on this campus have been marginalized and made to feel like they have committed some kind of crime just for having a child. This manifests when some professors are unsympathetic when a student must stay home because their child is sick. Or when students are called "bad parents" by people like Mr. Sessum for having the courage, for one simple day, to come to campus with their little ones in tow to proudly declare to the university community that, yes, I am a mother, I am a father, and I am not ashamed to say it.

A lack of affordable childcare is the third greatest barrier to degree completion, and mitigating those barriers increases the likelihood that parents — and their children — become productive members of society.

Is it not in taxpayers' interests to give low-income parents who aspire to earn a degree a path to their dreams, providing them with an option beyond social services? Give a parent a fish, and they will feed their child for a day. Teach a parent to fish, and they will not only eat for a lifetime, but they will teach their children, as well.

Student-parents are not asking for a hand-out. We are merely asking that it be just a little bit easier to acquire some fishing line.

GPSS Concerns Cited on 'Inside Olympia'

With the imminent passage of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, a bill that grants universities tuition-setting authority, we are entering a new era in Washington higher education. There was an interesting discussion on the subject in "Inside Olympia," in which host Austin Jenkins referenced GPSS concerns several times.

In this clip, Jenkins refers to a "false promise" on a provision in the bill that claimed to provide a cap on tuition increases for low- and middle-income students. However, in practice, tuition would have to practically double for those protections to be triggered.




GPSS also called for the reduction of the sunset clause to revisit local tuition control from eight years to four years:




Finally, GPSS called for the creation of mechanisms for student input, like public testimony at Regents' meetings:



Here are links to the GPSS documents referenced in these clips:

• Press release
• Tuition cap triggers

Historic Tuition Bill Passes With No Provisions for Student Input in Tuition Setting

The Washington State Senate rushed through the passage of E2SHB 1795, the “Higher Education Opportunity Act,” readying the bill for Governor’s signature into law. This bill represents a significant and historic policy shift, granting local undergraduate tuition-setting authority to institutions.

The shifting of tuition-setting authority from the Legislature to universities’ Boards of Regents and Trustees eliminates the mechanism for student input in the process. Legislative authority has an inherent mechanism for student input through the electoral process and the responsibility for legislators to listen and respond to their constituents. However, governor-appointed Trustees do not carry these same obligations. This bill will severely limit students’ ability to have a voice in the process.

A joint GPSS-ASUW proposal outlined three concrete mechanisms to protect the student voice in the process. However, the Senate avoided having a conversation with the No. 1 stakeholder, students.

”This bill, absent crucial amendments to ensure student voice and opportunity, signifies the end of opportunity for students,” said GPSS President Sarah Reyneveld. “GPSS is concerned that the bill passed without an opportunity for students to weigh in on the proposal in the Senate and with virtually no additional provisions to ensure student input in the tuition-setting process.”

The proposal included the following elements:

• Limit the eight-year sunset clause to four years.
• Mandate that institutions create budget advisory committees made up of students that report directly to the provost of each respective four-year state institution.
• Mandate public comments periods at board meetings.

“The House ignored our concerns. And when the Senate ducked debate on potential amendments, we were not given the opportunity to pursue our proposal,” said Ben Henry, GPSS Vice President and legislative liaison.

The bill, expected to be signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire, is, in essence, a historic policy shift after decades of student opposition to local tuition control. ASUW and GPSS hopes to pursue this proposal with the UW administration, and then to propose a bill next legislative session.

“Higher education and, specifically, students, now stand to be the biggest losers of this legislative session,” Henry said. “We have lost on institutional funding and on financial aid. Now, students are relinquishing the ability to have a voice in the tuition-setting process. The Legislature is making a clear and calculated statement that students of higher education are not a priority in this state.”

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The Daily: University to have control of tuition for extended period of time
Seattle Times: Gregoire says she'll sign bill letting schools set tuition

Senate Budget Restores Work Study, Cuts 34% of UW Budget

Last Wednesday night, the Senate finally released its budget proposal. Now all three major parties — the Governor, the House, and the Senate — have offered their visions for how to deal with the $5.1 billion budget shortfall the state is facing this session.

SENATE PROPOSES 34% CUT TO UW OPERATING BUDGET

Cuts to UW’s operating budget results in higher tuition; decreased ability to solicit federal research dollars; fewer assistantship opportunities, larger class sizes, and increased assistantship workloads; expanding already-overwhelming debt burdens; and the prospect that world-class programs may be consolidated or even eliminated.

The Senate budget is nearly on par with House on bottom line numbers ... they're "equally bad," as UW Director of State Relations Margaret Shepherd puts it. However, the Senate assumes furloughs that pushes cuts higher than the House cut.

The Senate assumes a 16% increase in annual undergraduate tuition to make up for budget cuts. The House assumed 13% across all categories. However, the House assumes across-the-board tuition increases, including graduate and non-resident tuition, which UW would not be able to implement. So, in practice, the House overestimates tuition revenue, and we're more likely to see what would amount to a 16% tuition increase for undergrads in the House proposal.

Comparisons of the institutional cut, including compensation reductions and furloughs (which the institution must absorb), can be seen in the chart at right.

Note that the House budget doesn't mandate furloughs, which pretty much accounts for the difference between the House and Senate. The net cut (taking into account tuition increases) to UW is 5% for both budgets.

FINANCIAL AID: SENATE SAVES STATE WORK STUDY, BUT STILL CUTS IT IN HALF

Unlike the House, which proposed outright elimination of all funding, the Senate preserves the State Work Study (SWS) program, but assumes greater employer contribution and excludes non-residents. SWS funding is reduced by $23.72 million, about half of the budget (currently funded at $45 million for the biennium). GPSS dislikes all three proposals, but prefer the Governor's $21.3 million cut, which is $2.42 million, or about 11%, less than the Senate's.

So, we are relieved that the Senate is not proposing the END OF FINANCIAL AID FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS, but the program will very likely be taking a huge hit, one way or another.


FINANCIAL AID: CHILDCARE PROGRAM SUSPENDED

Finally, we are disappointed that our proposal to use unclaimed lottery winnings to help fund the CCMG program was not included in the budget. Because this program will be suspended, hundreds of parents at four-year institutions and CTCs will take longer to graduate and join the workforce. We urge the Legislature in budget negotiations going forward to mitigate what is the third greatest barrier to degree completion, childcare.


TESTIMONY AT SENATE WAYS & MEANS

GPSS and several other students testified at Wednesday's Ways & Means hearing. Here is GPSS Policy Analyst Lauren Hipp, representing GPSS:



ASUW students:



Margaret Shepherd, UW Director of State Relations: “You get something from the University of Washington whether you go there or not.”



David Parsons, UAW Local 4121 President: "Impacting competitiveness to attract the best and the brightest for TAs and RAs"



Mike Bogatay, Washington Student Association Executive Director:




The Daily: ‘Senate takes slightly deeper cuts’ with released budget

House Unveils Budget, Proposes the End of Financial Aid for Grad Students

After a weeklong delay, yesterday the House released its budget. They are proposing to cut nearly half a BILLION dollars from higher education funding, including well over $200 million to UW's budget. The proposal increases in-state undergraduate tuition by 26% over the biennium, and suspends the State Work Study program, in addition to other smaller financial aid programs that graduate and professional students benefit from.

This is a profound policy shift by the House. They in essence are proposing the END OF FINANCIAL AID for graduate and professional students.

Here is some news coverage, with The Daily's story including the GPSS perspective:

• The Daily: UW faces budget cuts and tuition hikes with release of state budget
• The Daily opinion: Budget reductions resemble those Wise warned of in letter
• Seattle Times: House Dems outline plan to close $5 billion state budget shortfall

We had a few hours to digest the budget before we had to go and testify on it. Here is the GPSS testimony, including GPSS Policy Analyst Lauren Hipp, myself, and Higher Education Coordinating Board member and UW law student Sam Shaddox:

Frances Youn, UW Student Regent:

ASUW President Madeleine McKenna and ASUW Senate Vice Chair Michelle Nance:



Washington Student Association Executive Director Mike Bogatay:



Nick Muy, representing the Evans School of Public Affairs:

Gaping Budget Shortfall Increases; GPSS Organizes Inaugural Day of Advocacy

The revenue forecast is in, and, as expected, the news isn't good; because of the sluggish economy, the state should expect to collect $780 million less in tax revenue than expected. This means the state budget shortfall is now $5.1 billion, about a sixth of the entire state budget.

This means proposed cuts to higher education will be that much more difficult to fight, and raises the possibility of even more cuts.

GPSS Legislative Assistant Melanie Mayock has been pushing for a renewed look at the prospect of advocating for new revenue, and that idea is starting to look more and more attractive. The trick is that new revenue (tax increases) is largely seen as a pipe dream this session, because voters — through i1098 (income tax on high-earners), i1053 (requiring two-third majority for tax increases), and i1107 (candy tax) — have resoundingly said they are not interested in revenue as a solution to the budget shortfall.

Tim Eyman's 1053 is particularly what has made the new revenue discussion a non-starter in Olympia this session; it would require either a two-thirds majority in the Legislature — politically impossible this session — or a legislative simple majority coupled with voter approval via referendum to increase taxes.

We are in talks with a coalition for new revenue that has been pushing to close tax loopholes, among other things. Unlike last session, when new revenue was a huge part of the Washington Student Association's message, we have largely been playing defense against cuts this session. But we believe the more voices that are out there advocating for new revenue, the more politically feasible it would be for legislators to tackle this difficult issue.

STUDENTS FACE HUGE IMPACTS TO THEIR PROGRAMS
Meanwhile, students from UW's Evans School of Public Affairs, Information School, and Public Health Genetics are facing the threat of their programs either being consolidated with other programs or eliminated completely because of budget cuts.

In response to these threats and to the revenue forecast, GPSS has organized a day of advocacy focused exclusively on graduate and professional student issues. The inaugural GPSS Day of Advocacy will take place Thursday, March 24, and will include 17 meetings with some of the most influential higher education voices in Olympia.

We will be meeting with the Governor’s Higher Education Advisor, the Office of the Speaker of the House, the Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, the Chairs and Vice Chairs of both higher education committees, the Chair of the House Education Appropriations Committee, the Vice Chair of House Ways & Means, and the Ranking Minority Members of the House and Senate Higher Education committees, among others.

This will be a unique opportunity for graduate students particularly impacted by budget cuts to make their case directly to some very powerful people.

Topics that will be covered include:

• Threat of Evans School consolidation 
• Threat of iSchool consolidation 
• Threat of Public Health Genetics elimination 
• Threat of cuts to Work-Study program 
• Prospect of referendum for new revenue to fund financial aid 
• Funding the Childcare Matching Grants program 

Student representatives from each of those programs have been invited to participate.

With the gaping budget shortfall growing and the cuts we are facing, we have our work cut out for us. But we will make our case and tell legislators that graduate education is one of the most potent economic drivers around and that higher education should be a priority.

The State of Higher Ed, from the Student Perspective

The last couple of weeks have been very intense. On Feb. 23, President Wise sent a letter to legislative leadership outlining what budget cuts would look like at UW. In this letter, the Evans School of Public Affairs and the Information School were named as facing potential consolidation with another school. The Public Health Genetics program is facing elimination.

As you can imagine, there are many very extremely concerned students who are trying to figure out what this all means. GPSS has been working to get students information and to bring them together.

Meanwhile, this morning I testified before the House Higher Education Committee on behalf of the Washington Student Association. It was a very candid and heartfelt testimony, with the intention of encouraging legislators to put themselves in the (hole-ridden) shoes of students.

Here is the Seattle Times' coverage of this hearing:
University presidents warn lawmakers about higher-ed budget cuts

View my testimony here:



Click here for video of full committee hearing.

With the Legislature starting to shift its focus to the biennial budget, there is much left to be decided. We will continue to work hard to ensure that graduate students interests are heard.

Here are some media links on the President's letter, her town hall meeting yesterday, and the Evans School reaction.

President Wise letter:
The Daily: Wise sends letter to Legislature warning about costs of cuts
Seattle Times: State university presidents paint grim picture on budget cuts

President Wise town hall:
UWTV video: President’s Town Hall – State of the UW Budget
The Daily: Wise addresses budget at yesterday’s town-hall meeting

Evans School consolidation:
The Daily: Students organize to prevent consolidation of Evans School
Seattle Times: UW cuts may hit Evans School of Public Affairs
"Evans School Stories" video

The Bill Is Dead. But the Idea Is Still Very Much Alive.

So SB 5795, which enables student-parents to earn their degrees through reinstating the Childcare Matching Grant program, died today when it failed to get a floor vote by the 5 p.m. deadline.

Senator Brown, the bill's prime sponsor and a champion of students and childcare issues, has vowed to pursue making this a part of the big omnibus budget bill. The bill may be dead, but the idea lives on.

The bill had made it out of the Senate Ways & Means and Rules committees. It was eligible for a floor vote as of yesterday morning. But because the cut-off for bills to leave their chamber of origin was at 5, and because it didn't get a vote until then, the bill in effect died at 5 p.m.

It was quite the interesting day. We learned that the bill had opposition, so there wasn't going to be a floor vote. There was one especially influential member of the opposition, so we mobilized to influence him. And it actually worked.

At first he very much opposed it, making arguments against it. He was saying we should fully fund State Need Grant before funding a "new program." We eventually explained that is wasn't a "new program" but this bill restores funding to a suspended program. We also explained that this is financial aid and a way to help students during a session that is very unfriendly to students.

By the time we spoke to him the third time, he finally said, "I'm not against it, talk to Democratic leadership. Look how I voted in committee!" (He voted for it in Senate Ways & Means.)

So we finally got him and I ran to write Senator Brown a note. However, by then it was too late. It was 4 p.m., and the deadline to hear bills was 5 p.m., and there were still a million bills ahead of this one. I think if we had another day we could have gotten it.

But I will say I am proud that we can say we got this bill out of TWO committees and a breath away from a floor vote. We got this bill moving pretty late in the process. And thanks to Senator Brown's support, we at least got the conversation moving on this issue.

There is still a lot more work to be done, and I will be calling upon students to make your voices heard when the timing is right.


UPDATE: The Daily's coverage: http://dailyuw.com/2011/3/9/child-care-funding-bill-stopped-state-senate/

Childcare Bill Passes Senate Ways & Means

We got the votes! 19-2! SB 5795 is now in Rules, and we'll be working to get it pulled for a floor vote.

Here's a good account of the bill and where it's at:
http://dailyuw.com/2011/3/1/child-care-bill-would-provide-more-aid-student-par/

Do We Have the Votes?

Looks like I just might have the votes to get this bill (SB 5795) out of committee. Gonna stay late and try to get a couple more, just in case. In the meantime, a beautiful look at the snowy dome.

GPSS to Senate: Childcare Bill Is Sound Fiscal Policy

So we made our case to Senate Ways & Means yesterday afternoon. I testified, along with Shiboney Dumo, UW's Student Parent Organization President.

The last day this bill can be voted out of committee is tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 25). I will be working hard to get the votes. I'll provide an update on whether this bill gets exec'd out.

Also, we need students to help, and time is of the essence! Here's how to help:
http://www.gpss.washington.edu/content/child-care-bill-needs-your-help

And here's what happened at the hearing:

GPSS testimony:


Testimony of Shiboney Dumo, UW's Student Parent Organization President:


Entire hearing on SB 5795:

These are our arguments:

No Impact to General Fund: Senate Bill 5795 creates a funding mechanism for an existing program that will enable student-parents to get their degrees. The funding source is the portion of unclaimed lottery winnings that goes to funding more lottery prizes. This bill does not impact the general fund, and Washington State Lottery has said the impact to them is “minimal.”

The question is simple: Would you rather pay for more lottery prizes, or enhancing educational outcomes for non-traditional students?

Produces Degrees: With much talk this session about funding on outcomes and not inputs (focusing on degree production rather than enrollment), SB 5795 will address Washington’s shortage in degree production and mitigate the third greatest barrier to degree completion, childcare.

Here is the perspective of UW graduate student Jessica Burg:

“I often feel as if I am failing in both my role as a student as more importantly failing in my role as a mother. These feelings are cemented when advisors ask me how I feel about ‘underperforming in grad school.’ These feelings are cemented when I have to choose between going to class and nursing my sick infant. These feelings are cemented when I struggle to find the time to write my degree project when my son is buzzing around me in all his two-year-old fury. The past two years have been a constant struggle, a constant feeling of failure, and the recurring relief of finding out I have just barely passed quantitative analysis or some other class.”

Moves Focus Away From Social Services: If you are a low-income parent with no degree, you have some choices. You can turn to social services. Or, you can pursue a degree, start a career, and enter the workforce. Give someone a fish, they eat for a day; teach them to fish, and they eat for a lifetime. SB 5795 incentivizes the path to self sufficiency.

Eligibility to All Public Schools: Everyone on this committee has at least one community college in your district. Some of you have four or five. We are proposing an amendment that would open up eligibility for these grants to community and technical colleges. This would make all public colleges and universities in this state eligible.

A Way to Support Students in Tough Fiscal Times: In a session where students are taking on a disproportionally greater burden in budget cuts that degrade quality and increase tuition, this would be a small way to give something to students, who are even seeing financial aid get cut. This is something that students are asking for, and that students have prioritized. Do not allow yet another financial aid program to be suspended.

5795 is sound policy that is basically cost-neutral, with a dedicated funding source, that will have a significant impact on student-parents. The Washington Student Association requests moving 5795 out of committee with a due-pass recommendation.

Childcare Bill Hearing Takes Place Wednesday, 2/23

So the good news is SB 5795 has been scheduled for a hearing at Senate Ways & Means. The bad news is this agenda is JAMMED PACKED with hearings on 25 bills. Yikes.

Because of the time constraints, we won't be able to give it as much of a treatment as we could have. But we will still do everything we can to make our best case.

The hearing is coming up very quickly. It'll be Wednesday at 1:30. We're 12th on the agenda, so we'll probably end up somewhere in the second half of the hearing.

I will be working hard to lobby members and get the votes. I will need everyone's help in spreading the word. Below is an email we've been sending out to campus student-parent stakeholders.

Let's do this!!!

Ben

Dear Student-Parent,

Sen. Lisa Brown will be sponsoring a GPSS-requested bill SB 5795 Higher Education Child Care Grants, that proposes to reinstate and increase funding for the Child Care Matching Grant Program.

The bill has been giving a public hearing in the Senate on Wednesday, Feb. 23. We need you to show up to Olympia and show that student-parents are DEMANDING this. If you cannot make it, please write a letter supporting this bill.

We are looking for student-parents to volunteer to:

• Share their stories and experience as a student-parent, and how being a parents makes it difficult for you to attain your degrees
• Testify in support of this bill
• Recruit other student-parents to participate
• If you are interested, please contact Lauren Hipp at gpsspol@uw.edu by Tuesday, Feb. 22. If you are writing a letter, please email it to that address.

Thank you so much for all of your support during this process!  With your help, we can restore the essential state support for student-parents.

More details about the bill: http://gpss2011.blogspot.com/2011/02/gpss-backed-bill-helps-student-parents.html

Sincerely,

Ben Henry
Vice President
UW Graduate & Professional Student Senate

Obama's Budget Would Add to Graduate Debt Burden

President Obama's budget proposal would charge graduate students interest on loans once they start school, as opposed to after we graduate, as is currently the case.

Disincentivizing the pursuit of advanced degrees puts America at a further disadvantage in the global marketplace.

GPSS will be going to Washington, D.C., late March to lobby against this. Please email me at gpssvp@uw.edu if you are interested in writing a letter to protest this proposal.

News coverage:
Huffington Post: Graduate Students May Face Higher Debt Under Obama's Budget Plan
AP: Obama to Seek Changes in Pell Grants

Parking Tax Bill Vital to U-PASS Viability

Publicola's coverage of the hearing:
http://publicola.com/2011/02/14/should-uw-get-a-break-on-the-citys-commercial-parking-tax/

The Daily:
http://dailyuw.com/2011/2/16/students-administration-testify-u-pass-bill/

Watch the GPSS testimony:




"We need an affordable option to commute." Watch the testimony from other UW students:

Huskies on the Hill Day a Huge Success

Last Friday, more than 200 students descending upon an unsuspecting Olympia to deliver a simple message: Higher education is vital to this state's ability to compete in a global marketplace, and should be a priority.

Check out the news coverage!

KOMO

Seattle Times

The Daily

GPSS-Backed Bill Helps Student-Parents

For some students, simply surviving on your own with meager resources can be a challenge. Now imagine trying to raise a child, while going to school and, in many cases, holding down a job.

The state's Childcare Matching Grant incentivizes low-income, nontraditional students to pursue higher education, offering a means to get out of their low-income situation and positively impact the state economy. However, current budget proposals would continue the suspension of one of the few programs that exists that benefit graduate and professional students.

GPSS has advocated for the restoration of this program. And so, GPSS proudly presents Senate Bill 5795, "Regarding funding higher education child care grants." (Pic of me dropping bill off in the hopper at right.)

This bill, whose prime sponsor is Senate Majority Leader Sen. Lisa Brown, re-directs money from unclaimed prize funds at the Lottery to match some of the dollars spent from student Services & Activities fees, enhancing existing child care programs for student-parents at four-year universities and community and technical colleges. SB 5795 is a way to specifically address the third highest barrier to timely completion of degree work at our campuses, childcare.

This bill would be a small partial match to the approximately $2 million already being spent on campuses using student fees to fund educational attainment for student-parents. Students have prioritized investing in student-parents. It’s time for the state to do the same.

The bill has 10 co-sponsors, including Sen. Brown, Ways & Means Chair Sen. Ed Murray, and Vice Chair Sen. Derek Kilmer. Also co-sponsoring is Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, whose bill originally created the Childcare Matching Grants Program.

If you would like to know more about the bill, what it does, and the program it impacts, click here for a one-sheeter.

MOVING FORWARD: The bill will be given a hearing in the coming weeks. We will need to present an airtight case on the need for and importance of this program.

In support of this bill, we need to pack our testimony full of student-parents who are willing to share their stories and support this bill. Will YOU get involved?

We are looking for student-parents to volunteer to:

• Share their stories and experience as a student-parent
• Testify in support of this bill
• Recruit other student-parents to participate

If you are interested, please contact Lauren Hipp at gpsspol@uw.edu by Friday, Feb. 18.

With your help, we can restore the essential state support for student-parents.

Tuition to Fund Financial Aid?

One bill that seems to be, along with the Governor's task force bill, dominating discussions in Olympia is Rep. Reuven Carlyle's Higher Education Opportunity Act. The Seattle democrat has proactively extended an invitation to students to offer input in his bill, as he has said he understands that "nothing passes without students."

What it in essence does is temporarily give boards of trustees the ability to set undergraduate tuition, and ties tuition increases to significant increases in financial aid funding.

We hate the idea of relying on tuition dollars to do this, but it does help to preserve accessibility for low- and middle-income students.

The unfortunate reality of higher-ed funding this session is that we are going to have to rely more on tuition to fill gaping budget holes. The bad news is a quality education will be less affordable. The good news is, well, the University would be able to use tuition dollars to operate at levels that would not be as bad as it would be without tuition.

Here is The Daily's coverage of this bill, and this story includes a healthy dose of student perspective: Mixed feelings among students about new tuition bill

Here's Rep. Carlyle's blog explaining his bill: The largest expansion of middle class financial aid in state history: Higher Education Opportunity Act

And the Seattle Times' coverage on the bill: Bill: different tuition for each program

Rally to BARK Against Budget Cuts!

UW students fight back against tuition hikes

BARKing in the square

Bill Would Create Statewide Board of Trustees

A story in The Daily about a bill that would eliminate the Board of Regents for a board of trustees that would govern all of higher education in the state. This creates the potential for a bloated bureaucracy that would make it more difficult to understand individual institutions' needs.

http://dailyuw.com/2011/2/3/senate-considering-replacing-regents-statewide-boa/

UW Students Support Creating Student Trustees at Community/Technical Colleges

UW Student Regent Frances Youn came down to Olympia last week to testify in support of a bill that would allow the appointment of student members on the boards of trustees of community colleges. We are proud to stand united with our Community and Technical College student partners in support of making sure the student voice is a part of the decision-making process.

Full hearing: http://www.tvw.org/media/mediaplayer.cfm?evid=2011020058&TYPE=V&CFID=2123247&CFTOKEN=65592692&bhcp=1

Budget Bill Violates Spirit of Federal Requirement

Testified at Senate Ways & Means yesterday on the supplemental budget bill that makes cuts to the current biennium. The bill cuts $5.6 million from financial aid, and uses tuition to backfill. This is in violation of the spirit of the "maintenance of effort" requirement stipulated by the federal government when the state accepted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds last year.

Another example of higher education being a piggy bank, balancing the state budget on the backs of students.





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UPDATE: Check out Quinn Majeski's op-ed: http://publicola.com/2011/02/03/legislature-fail/

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ANOTHER UPDATE: Washington Students Association analysis, "Stop the Tuition Raid": http://wastudents.org/Issues/stopthetuitionra.html

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THE DAILY'S COVERAGE: http://dailyuw.com/2011/2/7/senate-considering-using-tuition-money-fund-state-/

About This Blog: Playing Defense, One Legislator at a Time.

When I first took this job last summer, I knew we'd be in for a fight. The trend was less of a reliance on the state paying for a public good and more of a burden on the student. Based on revenue projections, I knew we were headed for a historically high budget shortfall. I knew the 2011 session of the Washington State Legislature would be one largely playing defense, just trying to hold on to what we've got.

This blog chronicles my efforts in trying to represent the interests of the 12,000 graduate and professional students at the University of Washington.

In 2009, I quit my job as a newspaper copy editor and page designer and started attending UW's Evans School of Public Affairs. It was quite a life change, but a good one — I had never felt so alive in my professional life.

I went on to win — barely, by three votes — one of the Evans School's seats on the Graduate & Professional Student Senate. I spent the year mobilizing Evans students to attend our annual "lobby day," when we bus a bunch of students to Olympia to meet with legislators. We ended up filling an entire bus on our own!

At the end of the year, I ran for Vice President, and won. It was a thrill. I never thought I'd ever have the word "president" in my resume. Finally, it was a chance to be a leader! How exciting. Well, the tuition waiver didn't hurt, either.

But, looming in the distance was the ominous rumblings of an angry budget beast burning to blow the top out of accessibility to affordable, quality education.

And so here we are. Playing defense. One legislator at a time.

GPSS Testimony on State Financial Aid Programs

Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development
Jan. 28, 2011


Click here to watch entire hearing

$2 million research cut

House Ways & Means
Jan. 18, 2011





And check out The Daily's writeup of the $2 million in UW funding that the House budget goes after: http://dailyuw.com/2011/1/26/student-lobbyists-upset-possible-2-million-researc/

Legislative session kicks off

We are facing one of the most significant budget crises in state and UW history. So much is at stake: the potential elimination or consolidation of entire graduate programs; laying off of professors, staff, TAs, RAs; larger class sizes; fewer course offerings; fewer student services; reduced research funding.

With the 2011 Legislative Session kicking off on Monday, Jan. 10, I wanted to provide you with an update on what GPSS is doing to advocate for UW's graduate and professional student interests.

Governor's Higher Education Funding Task Force

You may have seen the lead story in the Seattle Times last week: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013835321_highered04m.html

And here is The Daily's report, which includes the student perspective: http://dailyuw.com/2011/1/5/transferring-tuition-control/

We are disturbed by what appears to be an endorsement of the funding floor model that's being labeled as being about local tuition control. Really, it would give the administration the ability to significantly raise tuition to make up for severe state budget cuts. While graduate education is already locally controlled, what happens to undergraduate tuition will certainly have a bearing on what happens to graduate tuition.

The budget crisis should not be a license to take money out of student pockets. We will advocate that legislators preserve access for low- and middle-income students. Ideally this is through keeping tuition low. But in lieu of that, we want the Legislature to EXPAND financial aid funding and fund the few programs that benefit graduate and professional students.

The Governor's budget

Last month, the Governor released her first budget. It would eliminate many services and would make dramatic cuts in education funding. Tuition would increase by 22 percent over two years for UW undergrads. But even with the cuts, colleges and universities would collectively experience $220 million in cuts.

Seattle Times coverage: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013685184_budget16m.html

If this budget goes through as-is, UW's state appropriation will have been cut in HALF over three years. This could have catastrophic impacts on UW's graduate programs and could result in the elimination or consolidation of entire graduate programs, historically high tuition increases, massive cuts in TA positions, the loss of world-class faculty, reduced class offerings, and more.

Further, all financial aid programs that benefit graduate and professional students would be eliminated (except for State Work-Study, from which just 3% of UW's graduate and professional students benefit).

Student engagement

The signature student advocacy event of the year will be Husky on the Hill Day on Friday, Feb. 11. This will be a vitally important opportunity to show legislators that students will not stand a further degradation of the state's commitment to higher education. To learn more about the event or to become involved, go here: http://www.gpss.washington.edu/content/huskies-hill-lobby-day-february-11-2011

Beyond that, GPSS Legislative Assistant Melanie Mayock and I have been working closely with the GPSS Communications & Outreach Committee to develop a student engagement strategy. We are working to set up town halls at individual graduate programs, like medicine, nursing, public affairs, law, public health, etc.

We are also planning other engagement campaigns, like a video storytelling contest and Huskies on the Hill contest that offers a pizza party for the program with the highest proportional attendance. Getting you out there and engaged is a vital piece of our legislative efforts. If we all realize what's at stake, we know you'll want to rise up and fight for higher education. Our challenge will be getting the word out.

Coming down the pike

Lots of meetings and committee hearings for me in Olympia. On campus, we've got a little more than a month till lobby day. We are hoping to conduct several town halls to educate students on what we are facing and why they need to understand that this session will change everything, the level of quality we have become accustomed to can no longer be taken for granted. So right now it's all hands on deck for lobby day planning.

Legislatively, bills are just now dropping, so we don't have specifics on what we are facing, though we have a sense based on some legislator proposals we've seen. Looks like local tuition control (and, more specifically, the funding floor model) will be the big topic in higher ed this session.

And here are some other links in case you need something to read or watch ...

Here, House and Senate leadership look ahead to session. Higher ed comes up at 14:34. "Higher education has been the piggy bank for times when things get tough." btw, check out 18:38 when Sen. Hewitt briefly talks about the impact the student voice has.

http://www.tvw.org/media/mediaplayer.cfm?evid=2011010008A&TYPE=V&CFID=2123247&CFTOKEN=65592692&bhcp=1

Other reads:

http://www.seattlepostglobe.org/2010/12/31/washington-budget-cuts-raise-questions-about-higher-ed-quality-and-accessibility

http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/jan/03/govs-higher-ed-task-force-to-share-its-ideas/

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110104/NEWS01/701049905

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/jan/03/letter-to-the-editor-cutting-education-is-our/

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110103/BLOG13/110109965

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/01/04/1487945/how-to-fund-higher-ed.html

http://www.theolympian.com/2011/01/04/1494167/private-money-for-higher-ed.html

Let me know if you have questions or comments!

Ben