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-/