State lawmakers are considering budget cuts that will impact thousands of college and university students across the state. LEV, the Washington Student Association and the Washington Bus are working together to urge parents and students to contact their legislators.

Watch the video of two UW students, Ashwaq and Colette, as they share their struggles with college affordability and then contact your lawmakers to urge them to protect funding for higher education. Please tell them how you, your friends, your kids and your relatives rely on Washington’s State Need Grants and/or Work Study programs in order to attend and complete college.

You may have heard that tomorrow is a national day of action on college campuses across the country. Look for rallies on the UW, Western Washington, Evergreen State College, and Seattle Community college campuses!

Read more...

It’s March 2^nd. There are 10 days left in Washington’s 2010 legislative session. Guess what that means? It’s CRUNCH TIME, still. Just like yesterday. This week in Oly, legislators are tackling some big issues related to our state’s budget deficit (refresher, we’re 2.8 billion dollars in the hole). Plenty of programs have been proposed for cuts—and too many of these programs hurt the pockets of students.

One (of several) programs that are at-risk this session is Work Study. These are part-time jobs for students on campus which help the university fill necessary positions, help the student earn some extra cash, and help our economy by graduating students with real work experience.

Governor Gregoire has proposed to cut Washington’s ENTIRE work study program. Both the Senate and House have proposed to cut this vital program by at least $7.4 million dollars.

Here’s why Washington can’t afford to cut work study:

Work study programs provide part-time jobs to 9,400 students across the state, at 55 different campuses

For these 9,400 students, their annual earnings make up about 15% of their average financial aid package.

Work study jobs, on average, help fund $3,000-4,000 dollars of tuition per student, per year.

Can you imagine what it would take to make up for that missing money? If you think Work Study is as vital a program as we do, e-mail your legislators today and tell them to FULLY FUND Washington’s Work Study program. Let’s see some new revenue, too!

Speaker of the House:

Frank Chopp: chopp.frank@leg.wa.gov

Senate Ways and Means Committee Leadership (who delegate the ca$h)

Margarita Prentice: prentice.margarita@leg.wa.gov

Rodney Tom: tom.rodney@leg.wa.gov

Karen Fraser: fraser.karen@leg.wa.gov

House Ways and Means Committee Leadership

Kelli Linville: linville.kelli@leg.wa.gov

Mark Ericks: ericks.mark@leg.wa.gov

Pat Sullivan: sullivan.pat@leg.wa.gov

Read more...

1) Obama stated his commitment to making community colleges across the country more affordable

2) the Bus held Olympia in a Can (part 1 of 3)!

The first three weeks of the legislative session have been a whirlwind of topics: the budget, pre-kindergarten, the budget, race to the top, umm the budget, new revenue sources, and did I mention that people are concerned about Washington’s budget? Not so much a ‘whirlwind of topics’ … maybe more of a black hole, actually.

Amidst the furor over our 2.6 billion dollar deficit, Washington students must know one thing.  State need-grants and work study money for two and four year students are on the chopping block.

This was the hot topic last night at Grey Gallery and Lounge, where over 100 young people convened with the Bus, LEV, WSA, and UAW Local 4121 to hear and discuss how this session will affect campuses across Washington.

A few, key facts:

Washington State has over 83,000 college students receiving some form of need-based grant or work study money.

83,000 is more than a sold out Seahawks game at Qwest Field and roughly 2/3rds of all students across the state!

Cutting the state-need grant would entirely eliminate funding for 12,300 students and reduce (by more than half) the awards for 57,000 other students.

Nobody likes the idea of students taking out private loans to pay for their education-except the banks.

Check out Washington Student Association’s calendar for days of action in February and stay posted to League of Education Voters’ student Facebook page for updates on how young people can stay involved in this year’s legislative session.

Read more...

Yesterday, Christina Rocks from Washington Student Association and I (Maggie), spent the day traveling up the coast to visit the campus of Western Washington University. Besides wanting to catch beautifully obstructed views of the mountains (clouds, fog, rain, large trees), we roadtripped north to talk to WWU students about what Washington’s budget crisis will mean for their education.

The run-down…

We’re in a budget crunch. About 2.6 billion in deficit, actually. Annnnnnnd, the governor and our legislators have been tasked with the tough job of cutting back spending– in a very serious way. On the chopping block is state funding of need-based financial aide and work study grants. These cuts would affect almost 83,000 students (about 2/3rds of Washington’s 4-year students).

Also on the table for discussion? Allowing state universities to raise their tuition– up to 14%.

If some of you are thinking this sounds like déjà-vu from last year’s session, you are partially right. It partially is. Last year, UW raised its tuition 14%. Why 14?  Because 14 divided by 2 is the most magical number known to the wizarding community.

But I digress. If you want to hear what WWU students had to say, here ya go:

Read more...