Dear friends and neighbors:
You may not know that GET stands for Guaranteed Education Tuition, our unique state program where you can purchase tuition credits for future years at today’s rates. In other words, your kindergartner can be guaranteed a year of college regardless of how much the cost of tuition goes up in the coming years.
Well, I’m looking to strengthen that guarantee with Senate Bill 5430. Though the cost you pay today locks in a year of tuition, you have no guarantee that what you’re paying reflects today’s actual costs.
Last year, for instance, a year of UW tuition through GET cost $12,100. This year, however, the charge was raised to $13,300—and I know from my role on the State Investment Board that we didn’t need that high of an increase. My bill would require that increases in GET fees reflect the actual increases in tuition; these typically fall somewhere around $300 per year, in line with the state’s current limits on the range of increases allowed for public colleges. As an example, this bill would have prevented the scenario we saw this past year where GET fees increased by more than $1,000.
This is a simple way to help keep tuition more affordable for Washington families who choose to use the GET program to save for their kids’ college education. It makes sense today, and it will make even more sense when your kids are old enough for college.
Best regards,
