After several years of discussion, 2010 might be the year that the legislature finally decides to give its four-year colleges the ability to set its own tuition rates for in-state students. Senators Derek Kilmer and Ken Jacobsen, along with Rep. Reuven Carlyle, all have proposed bills that would enable schools like UW wide latitude to hike tuition. Though the bills differ on the details, including whether the increases can be limited or not, they all share one thing in common: they’ll merely accelerate the decline in affordability and accessibility of Washington’s public university system.
In this case, as with so many other aspects of the state’s budget crisis, a comparative perspective can help Washingtonians understand the options available to deal with the deficit – and the actual consequences of proposed solutions. The experience of California universities suggests that allowing the schools to set their own tuition rates will create a situation in which it is very difficult to hold anyone responsible or accountable for higher education becoming unaffordable.
The University of California system has had the authority to set its own tuition rates for many years. In November 2009, after the state legislature made yet another cut to its already tight budgets, the UC Regents voted to increase student fees by a whopping 32% — bringing the cost of an undergraduate year at a UC school to $10,300 (and that’s before room, board, and books are included). In contrast, when I graduated UC Berkeley in 2000, I paid $4,400 a year.