S-1678               _______________________________________________

                                          SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 8009

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1987 Regular Session

By Senators Moore and Talmadge

Read first time 2/17/87 and referred to Committee on Education.

TO THE HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

          WHEREAS, President Reagan's proposed fiscal 1988 budget would cut 3.9 billion dollars, forty-five percent, from the financial aid system; and

          WHEREAS, This would eliminate the federal College Work/Study program, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, the National Direct Student Loan, and the State Student Incentive Grant, and severely reduce the Guaranteed Student Loan and Pell Grant programs; and

          WHEREAS, These actions would virtually destroy American private higher education and create an even greater burden on public higher education; and

          WHEREAS, In the past six years, while financial aid has fallen twenty-three percent, private education costs have risen sixty-one percent, and public education costs have risen fifty percent; and

          WHEREAS, Many institutions of higher learning in the United States are already facing merger, closure or bankruptcy;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the Congress of the United States reject further reductions in student financial aid and take measures to make such aid commensurate with the increased cost of attending institutions of higher learning.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.