House and Senate policy committees continued with hearings this week and ramped up voting on bills ahead of next week's policy committee cutoff deadline. For the community and technical college system, higher education committees heard bills on creating an online college, adding a student member to the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, and modifying how colleges are accredited in Washington state.
State Board-requested bills on a waiver for Tribal elders, the House and Senate versions of expanding the College Bound Scholarship, and the House and Senate versions of creating a tuition waiver for high school completors passed out of their committees. The bill that would expand eligibility of the Dual Enrollment Scholarship Program also passed the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Development Committee.
Turning to action from the Trump administration, Gov. Bob Ferguson on Thursday held a press conference with state agency leaders, with State Board Interim Executive Director Chris Bailey in attendance, outlining Washington state's response to federal executive orders.
"The core message that I have for Washingtonians is that we are dealing with the chaos that's coming down from Washington, DC, but at the same time, we are going to preserve our values as a state. And importantly, we're going to move forward on the issues that unite us as a state — to make our state more affordable, to make it more safe, to make opportunities available for all Washingtonians," Ferguson said.
House committee hears bills adding a student to State Board, modifying accreditation requirements
Feb. 12 — The House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee at its hearing Wednesday heard testimony on a bill that would add a student member to the State Board and a bill that would change how Washington state accredits colleges and universities.
Up first was HB 1486, which, if passed, would add a student member to the nine-member governor-appointed State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The student must be currently enrolled in a community or technical college and would serve for one year. Under current law, at least two members must live on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. One member must represent labor and one must represent business. Members serve four-year terms.
“These are the primary stakeholders in higher education for our committee and the ones that the board like the SBCTC aims to serve. Their lived experiences would provide valuable first-hand insights into how policies impact learning conditions, affordability, and accessibility,” Rep. Osman Salahuddin, the bill’s prime sponsor, said.
Arlen Harris, legislative director for the State Board, spoke favorably of the bill’s policy. He asked committee members to consider amending the legislation so the student member would be exempt from decisions related to personnel and possible litigation. He also asked for an amendment that would allow the State Board to adopt implementation rules.
Board members are always interested in students and the effect their decisions make on them as well as the colleges, he said in his testimony.
The committee next heard testimony on HB 1572, a bill that would eliminate the state requirement that an out-of-state college or university operating in Washington to maintain a separate accreditation. It instead would require those institutions to meet criteria such as having continuously offered degree programs in Washington for at least 10 years, have been continuously authorized to offer degree programs in its home state for at least 20 years, and have been continuously accredited as a degree-granting institution for at least 10 years by an accrediting association recognized by the US Department of Education and the Washington Student Achievement Council. Under current law, out-of-state colleges and universities operating in Washington must obtain authorization from WSAC or deemed exempt.
“It's important to change the law and say, in Washington state, you can either look to US Department of Education and its review and WSAC can determine if an accreditor meets all those standards for actually being able to review an institution,” Rep. Gerry Pollet, the bill’s prime sponsor, said.
Melissa Beard, legislative affairs director for the Council of Presidents, an organization representing Washington’s six public baccalaureate institutions, and Joyce Hammer, deputy executive director of education for the State Board, testified before the panel on the bill.
“We are signed in other on House Bill 1572 because any changes to the Degree-Granting Institutions Act should be made within the context of the entire act to ensure that there are no unintended challenges or outcomes that may negatively impact Washington's public institutions and the students we serve,” Beard said. “We ask the sponsor of the bill to work with our sector and other higher education sectors impacted by the degree-granting institution act in the interim to bring forth the comprehensive update to the act that allows for any changes to be intentional to the overall impact to quality degree access through a student-centered lens.”
The Degree-Granting Institutions Act, passed by the Washington state Legislature in 1986, requires all degree-granting institutions to be authorized by WSAC to operate in the state. Northeastern University, a private university based in Boston, is requesting authorization from WASC to operate a campus in Seattle.
Hammer stressed the State Board’s long-standing support of private non-profit universities operating in Washington, pointing out the system’s history of collaboration with those institutions.
“In 2019, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and the Council of Presidents worked with the Washington Student Achievement Council to update their process for authorizing private out-of-state institutions wishing to operate as a degree granting institution in the state and included a review of colleges seeking to re-establish their approval. We were unable to complete that process so we would welcome the opportunity to do so along with allowing allowances for long-time institutions offering branch campuses in the state like Northeastern,” Hammer said. “We hope that allowing us additional time to work with our four-year partners and the Washington Student Achievement Council will uphold the integrity and quality of all our higher education institutes seeking to operate in our state.”
Senate Higher Ed
Feb. 13 — A bill that would create an entirely online community and technical college campus was up for a hearing during Thursday’s Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee meeting. The bill, SB 5663 sponsored by Sen. Vandana Slatter, would require the State Board to develop a website for students to search online program offerings offered by the 34 community and technical colleges. It would also establish a work group charged with developing a virtual campus for online courses by the 2028-29 academic year. The bill is modeled on the California Virtual Campus, which allows students to enroll in online courses offered by any of the state’s 116 community colleges.
“It doesn't make sense if you're a working mom, and you have a childcare issue, or you're working two jobs, or you live in South Seattle, and the program you really need is in Whatcom County or Columbia Basin,” Slatter said of students who take classes offered by different colleges. “How in the world do you actually navigate that? You might give up on your on your dreams, you might give up on upskilling or reskilling, and it changes everything.”
Joyce Hammer, deputy executive director for education at the State Board, expressed support for the concept of a virtual campus and an program search website.
“Though we already do allow students to simultaneously enroll in courses offered at any of our colleges, regardless of the district in which they reside, this bill will better organize the option and make clear to students ability to complete an entire degree program all online,” she said.
Creating the campus and website, however, would require time and resources to align business processes and maintain.
“We anticipate that the implementation of this bill would require additional resources to develop the website, monitor the website, create and distribute marketing materials, and provide staff to implement the technical side of sharing online courses and the cross enrollment among our colleges,” she said.
Bob Mohrbacher, president of Centralia College, told senators that starting a virtual campus with courses offered by colleges across the state would require technological support for course sharing as no tool currently exists that can meet that need.
“Much of what the bill asks us to do we already either do or have the ability to do. While students can enroll simultaneously for more than one college, we don't have a centralized tool where they can see all online offerings systemwide,” he said.
Amy Morrison, president of Lake Washington Institute of Technology, spoke about the system’s support for the idea but concern about the cost.
“While we are always looking for ways to be more innovative, efficient and supportive of students, and certainly that continues to be the case, this is an incredibly uncertain time for our colleges with federal actions that are causing disruptions and concerns on our campuses, as well as uncertainty around the state budget,” she said. “Today we are asking that the colleges really have the opportunity during the interim to better understand how we can serve students statewide online while also better understanding the intended and unintended consequences of such legislation on our colleges, especially during this uncertain time.”
Coming up next week
Next Friday marks the first cutoff deadline of the 2025 session in which bills need to pass their policy committees to continue this session. Because of that, policy committees like the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee and the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee will spend much of their committee hearing time next week voting on bills they've heard over the past five weeks.
