OLYMPIA — A bipartisan bill updating how Washington College Grant and College Bound Scholarship awards are calculated for students attending private four-year nonprofit institutions of higher education was heard Thursday in the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee.
Senate Bill 5828, sponsored by Sen. T’wina Nobles (D-Fircrest), would modify statutory definitions and award formulas for the Washington College Grant and College Bound Scholarship programs as they apply to eligible students attending private four-year nonprofit institutions in Washington.
Under the bill, beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, the maximum Washington College Grant award for students attending private four-year nonprofit institutions would be calculated as the average of awards granted to students attending public four-year institutions in Washington. Similar changes are made to College Bound Scholarship award calculations beginning in the 2027-28 academic year.
SB 5828 does not change eligibility requirements for the Washington College Grant or College Bound Scholarship programs but adjusts how award amounts are determined for students enrolled at private nonprofit institutions.
“Access to higher education should not depend on which eligible institution a student attends,” Nobles said. “This bill updates our financial aid programs, so the Washington College Grant and College Bound Scholarship are applied more consistently, helping students better understand and rely on the support available to them.”
“The crucial state assistance this bill would restore affects the very student population our state has pledged to support. Two-thirds of them identify as students of color, most are women, and six in 10 will be the first in their families to earn a college degree,” said Isiaah Crawford, president of University of Puget Sound. “These inequitable cuts create barriers for the Washingtonians who aspire to prepare themselves for careers that our state’s employers have waiting for them.”
“This legislation is essential to avoid harm to 7,000 Washington students — harm that would otherwise be caused by student aid cuts made in the 2025 legislative session,” said Terri Standish-Kuon, president and CEO of Independent Colleges of Washington, an association of not-for-profit, private campuses in Washington state. “This is the right thing to do for our students, and also for our state. This scholarship funding represents less than 0.1% of the state-funded operating budget and will more than pay for itself with the taxes and other contributions these college graduates will make in Washington. Our state’s economic future depends on our ability to train a capable labor pool for the coming years, and restoring this student aid is a vital part of strengthening the graduate-to-workforce pipeline. Sens. Nobles and Warnick are champions for the needs of Washington’s college students, and it is heartening to see this legislation address these inequitable cuts.”
Follow the bill’s progress here.