BILL REQ. #: H-0735.1
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2011 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/21/11. Referred to Committee on Higher Education.
AN ACT Relating to global challenge state funding; and amending RCW 28B.15.068.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 28B.15.068 and 2009 c 540 s 1 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) Beginning with the 2007-08 academic year and ending with the
2016-17 academic year, tuition fees charged to full-time resident
undergraduate students, except in academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11,
may increase no greater than seven percent over the previous academic
year in any institution of higher education. Annual reductions or
increases in full-time tuition fees for resident undergraduate students
shall be as provided in the omnibus appropriations act, within the
seven percent increase limit established in this section. For academic
years 2009-10 and 2010-11 the omnibus appropriations act may provide
tuition increases greater than seven percent. ((To the extent that
state appropriations combined with tuition and fee revenues are
insufficient to achieve the total per-student funding goals established
in subsection (2) of this section, the legislature may revisit state
appropriations, authorized enrollment levels, and changes in tuition
fees for any given fiscal year.))
(2) ((The state shall adopt as its goal total per-student funding
levels, from state appropriations plus tuition and fees, of at least
the sixtieth percentile of total per-student funding at similar public
institutions of higher education in the global challenge states. In
defining comparable per-student funding levels, the office of financial
management shall adjust for regional cost-of-living differences; for
differences in program offerings and in the relative mix of lower
division, upper division, and graduate students; and for accounting and
reporting differences among the comparison institutions. The office of
financial management shall develop a funding trajectory for each four-year institution of higher education and for the community and
technical college system as a whole that when combined with tuition and
fees revenue allows the state to achieve its funding goal for each
four-year institution and the community and technical college system as
a whole no later than fiscal year 2017. The state shall not reduce
enrollment levels below fiscal year 2007 budgeted levels in order to
improve or alter the per-student funding amount at any four-year
institution of higher education or the community and technical college
system as a whole. The state recognizes that each four-year
institution of higher education and the community and technical college
system as a whole have different funding requirements to achieve
desired performance levels, and that increases to the total per-student
funding amount may need to exceed the minimum funding goal.)) During the 2009-10 and the 2010-11 academic years,
institutions of higher education shall include information on their
billing statements notifying students of tax credits available through
the American opportunity tax credit provided in the American recovery
and reinvestment act of 2009.
(3) By September 1st of each year beginning in 2008, the office of
financial management shall report to the governor, the higher education
coordinating board, and appropriate committees of the legislature with
updated estimates of the total per-student funding level that
represents the sixtieth percentile of funding for comparable
institutions of higher education in the global challenge states, and
the progress toward that goal that was made for each of the public
institutions of higher education.
(4) As used in this section, "global challenge states" are the top
performing states on the new economy index published by the progressive
policy institute as of July 22, 2007. The new economy index ranks
states on indicators of their potential to compete in the new economy.
At least once every five years, the office of financial management
shall determine if changes to the list of global challenge states are
appropriate. The office of financial management shall report its
findings to the governor and the legislature.
(5)