Governor’s proposed budget cuts financial aid by $187 million

Gov. Gregoire

Governor Chris Gregoire today made public her proposal to deal with a $2.6 billion budget shortfall. The no-new-revenue, all-cuts proposal bridged the gap in part by cutting about $187 million from state financial aid programs. The largest chunk of that, $146 million, comes out of the State Need Grant Program.

The governor made plain that she knows we won’t like this proposal, and said she doesn’t support it either. But by law she must provide a balanced budget within existing revenue. She referred to the budget she revealed today as “balanced but unjust.” She pledged to propose another budget in January that includes new revenue (closed tax loopholes, tax and fee increases, possible federal dollars) and to restore some of these cuts, including in financial aid.

Need Grant details
The governor made reductions to the Need Grant program in two ways. First, she reduced the eligibility level from the current 70 percent of the state’s median family income ($55,000 for a family of four) down to 50 percent of MFI ($39,000). This would throw an estimated 12,300 currently eligible students out of the program. Those remaining, the lowest income students, would have their grants cut by about half, to about $3,400. These cuts would be effective for next fiscal (and academic) year, not the current one. The reductions amount to a 60 percent cut in the program.

Other aid programs “suspended or eliminated”
The governor’s budget provides no funding in the 2010-11 fiscal year for State Work Study, WAVE, GEAR-UP, Washington Scholars, the GET Ready for Math and Science Scholarship, Health Care Professionals Scholarship and Loan Forgiveness Program, the Passport to College scholarship program for former foster youth, and child care matching grants. This saves about $41 million.

We agree with the governor that huge cuts to student financial aid are not acceptable. We applaud her pledge to restore cuts and “get financial aid to our low-income college students” and keep the doors to higher education open for all capable students, regardless of income.  We will work with the governor and legislators to restore funding for financial aid programs. Higher education is a key to economic opportunity for Washington students and to economic recovery for the state.

Need-based financial aid is a key investment when resources are tight, as it targets those resources to a specific need and delivers results. Aid recipients match their more well-off classmates in graduation rates, post-graduation employment rates and income, graduate school attendance, job satisfaction, and living independently from their parents. Need-based aid creates opportunity. Focusing funding on students in the form of need-based aid empowers students to choose the college—public or private—that is right for them and their career aspirations and dreams.

You can read the governor’s news release about her budget proposal, and this page has links to a host of documents about the budget for the seriously wonky among our readership. View the governor’s pledge on financial aid below, or visit the TVW Web site to  watch this morning’s news conference in its entirety.