SENATE BILL REPORT

                  SHB 1005

              As Reported By Senate Committee On:

                Higher Education, April 3, 1997

Title:  An act relating to a pilot project on resident tuition rates and financial aid portability for students residing in certain border counties in Washington and Oregon.

Brief Description:  Creating the border county higher education opportunity pilot project.

Sponsors:  House Committee on Higher Education (originally sponsored by Representatives Carlson, Pennington, Ogden, Dunn, Boldt and Mielke).

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Higher Education:  3/27/97, 4/3/97 [DPA-WM].

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION

Majority Report:  Do pass as amended and be referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

  Signed by Senators Wood, Chair; Winsley, Vice Chair; Bauer, Hale, Kohl, Patterson, Prince and Sheldon.

Staff:  Aldo Melchiori (786-7439)

Background:  Generally, students who move to Washington in order to attend a public college or university are charged a higher tuition rate than the one levied on Washington residents. Resident students who are dependents must be able to prove that their parents or guardians have been domiciled in the state for at least one year before the students enrolled.  Independent students must meet the same test themselves.  Some students who cannot meet this test are defined as Washington residents, such as the spouses and dependents of active duty military personnel stationed in the state and some American Indian students from Idaho, Oregon, and Montana.

Tuition waiver programs allow some nonresident students to pay resident tuition rates.  The programs are permissive, however, meaning that colleges and universities may choose whether to grant the tuition waivers to eligible students. 

The Higher Education Coordinating Board is responsible for entering reciprocity agreements on the state=s behalf and the board has entered agreements with Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia. A stipulated number of resident students from those states and province are permitted to pay resident tuition rates at stipulated colleges in Washington.  In return, a stipulated number of Washington residents are given the same privilege.

Under the current reciprocity agreement with Oregon, 313 students from Washington pay resident tuition rates at Portland State University and the Oregon Institute of Technology.  An additional 274 Washingtonians pay resident rates at eight community colleges in Oregon.  Sixty Oregon students pay resident rates at Washington State University, Western Washington University, and The Evergreen State College.  Another 577 Oregonians pay resident rates at six community colleges in Washington.

Summary of Amended Bill:  The Border County Higher Education Opportunity Pilot Project is created to be administered by the Higher Education Coordinating Board.  The board determines eligibility criteria for institutional and student participation in the pilot.  By November 30, 2000, the board reports to the Governor and appropriate committees of the Legislature on the results of the pilot.

Resident students from Clark County and Cowlitz County, Washington, and Multnomah County and Washington County, Oregon, are able to pay resident tuition at public colleges and universities in either county.  Oregon students may take programs offered in Clark County or Cowlitz County by any Washington public college or university.

In order to pay resident tuition rates, Oregon students must meet their sending state=s residency laws and must have been domiciled in Multnomah or Washington County for at least 90 days immediately before enrolling in a college or university in Clark or Cowlitz County.  Washington resident students pay resident tuition rates at public colleges and universities in Multnomah County or Washington County if the students or their parents or guardians have been domiciled in Clark or Cowlitz County for at least 90 days immediately before enrollment.

Eligible Washington resident students can use their state funded financial aid packages while studying in eligible public and independent colleges and universities and private career schools and colleges in Multnomah County or Washington County.

Washington=s participation in the pilot project begins at the start of the academic term following enactment of reciprocal legislation in Oregon. The act expires on June 30, 2001.

Amended Bill Compared to Substitute Bill:  Cowlitz County, Washington, and Washington County, Oregon, are added as participating counties in the program.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Requested on January 13, 1997.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  The state border is not a barrier to student needs for professional education, nor is it an economic border.  This program is intended as a pilot to determine the effects of out-of-state tuition.  The state needs to be creative in meeting the needs of large metropolitan areas that span borders.  A number of eastern states have similar programs.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  PRO:  Rep. Carlson; Susan Patrick, HECB; Nancy Youlden, WSU-Vancouver.