HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 492

BYRepresentatives Heavey, Jacobsen, Allen, Prince, Unsoeld, Miller, Brough, Kremen and R. King 

Continuing the authority to permit installment payments of tuition and fees.

House Committe on Higher Education

Majority Report:     The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass.  (10)

     Signed by Representative Jacobsen, Chair; Heavey, Vice Chair; Allen, Barnes, Basich, Jesernig, Nelson, Silver, Unsoeld and K. Wilson.

House Staff:Susan Hosch (786-7120)

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION FEBRUARY 10, 1987

BACKGROUND:

In 1985, the legislature approved a bill authorizing state colleges and universities to offer students an optional plan for paying tuition and fees, in advance, in monthly installments. Although state law requires institutions to transmit the operating fees they collect to the state treasurer within thirty-five days of receipt, institutions initiating a tuition installment plan were permitted to transmit operating fees to the treasurer within five days following the close of the appropriate quarter or semester.

Institutions implementing a tuition installment plan are required to report on the plan's effectiveness and administrative cost to the Legislature by January 1, 1988.

$18,000 was appropriated for the 1985-87 biennium to Western Washington University to pilot test the concept.  During the 1986-87 academic year, 820 students at Western received the sets of prepayment coupons needed to participate in the plan.

Institutional authority to offer a tuition installment plan expires on June 30, 1987, as does the authority to transmit operating fees collected under the program to the treasurer within five days of the close of the appropriate quarter or semester.

SUMMARY:

SUBSTITUTE BILL:  The June 30, 1987 expiration date on institutional authority to offer tuition installment plans, is removed.  Also removed is the June 30, 1987 expiration date on authority to transmit operating fees collected through the program to the treasurer within five days of the close of the appropriate quarter or semester.

SUBSTITUTE BILL COMPARED TO ORIGINAL:  The expiration date on institutional authority to transmit operating fees collected through tuition installment plans to the treasurer within five days of the close of a quarter or semester is removed, and that language is clarified to ensure that only moneys received through that program are to be transmitted at that time.

Fiscal Note:    Requested February 11, 1987.

Effective Date:The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect on June 30, 1987.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:     Jim Sullivan, Washington Student Lobby and Al Froderberg, Western Washington University.

House Committee - Testified Against: None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:     Western Washington University implemented a tuition installment plan during the 1986-87 academic year.  Seventy-nine percent of the students who asked for a set of coupons used them.  The program helps parents and students who budget monthly.  Students, parents and the University all think the plan has been successful.  Students believe other colleges and universities should adopt similar programs.

House Committee - Testimony Against: None Presented.