This week UpFront will be focusing on the skyrocketing cost of tuition. 

Rising tuition prices are a painful reality for many of us. I just paid my bill for winter quarter at the University of Washington. $2159.00 for one graduate-level course. That's right, one class. That is roughly four-hundred dollars more than I paid last quarter, a 25-percent increase from one quarter to the next. And that was up nearly $200 from the quarter before when tuition and fees saw another 15-percent increase.

Add to that the cost of books and parking (I pay $15 to park on campus one day per week) and it doesn't take someone with a mathematics degree to figure out the price tag to go to the UW is pretty expensive.

Governor Christine Gregoire's current budget proposal calls for a $90-million cut in higher education - with financial aid taking one of the biggest hits. If no alternate funding is found nearly 8-thousand Promise Scholarship recipients will be forced to drop out of school when the money dries up.

One option the Governor has proposed to avoid those cuts is "tuition flexibility" at the state's public universities --   UW, Evergreen State College, Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University and Western Washington University.

That flexibility comes in the form of Senate Bill 6562 which, if approved, would turn control of tuition increase to the governing boards of the six schools. It would have its limits however. Regents would not be able to increase tuition more then 14-percent in any given year. No such cap exists to fees though - which can add hundreds of dollars to a student's tab.

A similar bill in the House, HB 1235, would also give governing boards control over tuition - but places no cap on possible increases. The bill was reintroduced after dying in committee during the last legislative session.

 Also being debated is Senate Bill 6409 which creates what is being called an "excellence account."  The bill reads, in part, "Institutions of higher education are key to the future employment opportunities of Washington citizens and to the economic well-being of the state."  Based on the belief that current financial aid programs and underfunded and the state budget is unpredictable, SB6904 would direct lottery monies toward funding a variety of scholarship programs and education construction. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for Wednesday, January 27th at 3:30pm.

(And, before you say money from the state lottery was always intended to go to education - it wasn't. The money has always been earmarked for the state general fund which, in turn, funds education and just about everything else in the state.)

Compared with peer institutions, the University of Washington and other public institutions are a relatively good deal. Tuition for resident undergraduates costs roughly $14,000.00 per year.  Unfortunately that is already out of reach for many of the state's middle income and working poor who don't qualify for financial aid because they make too much.  One wonders if a college degree will become a status symbol in the future with only the wealthy able to pay for higher education.