Members of the House and Senate spent the week on the floor debating and voting on bills to pass to the opposite chamber for its consideration. Both versions of State Board-requested legislation to remove the age limit for a tuition waiver for students pursuing a high school diploma at a community or technical college passed the House and Senate. Another State Board-requested bill that would expand College Bound Scholarship eligibility also passed the Senate. A bill that would allow colleges to advertise their online course offerings outside of their service districts passed the Senate Tuesday.

Bill eliminating college tuition waiver age limit for students pursuing high school diploma passes House, Senate

he House version of the State Board-requested bill that would give community and technical colleges the ability to waive course fees for students attending their schools to earn a high school diploma or certificate unanimously passed the House Wednesday. The Senate unanimously passed its version Thursday. HB 1556 and SB 5542 would eliminate the requirement that students be at least 19 years old for a college to waive those fees. Colleges charge $25 per quarter and some colleges add a $10 technology fee.

"Currently we have a program that will waive the fee if you are 19 and over, but what we have found is that we have a number of students between 16 and 19 who are participating in the program when we are just asking as we treat them as we would treat students who are older," Rep. Debra Entenman, the House bill's prime sponsor, said.

In the Senate, Sen. Matt Boehnke, the Senate bill's prime sponsor, said it would move people in the right direction.

"When you have individuals that are younger than the age of 19 that have an arbitrary barrier going after the tuition completion program and fees waiver, it gets one little step toward reducing the higher cost of higher education and allowing these individuals to go after their careers and have the passions that we want in a great state that we have," he said.

Bill to expand College Bound eligibility passes Senate

The Senate Friday afternoon unanimously passed SB 5543, a bill requested by the State Board, that would make students who receive a high school equivalency certificate eligible for the College Bound Scholarship. Current law states that the scholarship may go to community and technical college students who graduate from high school without a felony conviction and whose families do not exceed 65% of the state median family income. It's available to students attending a public or private university who must maintain a C average while in high school to be eligible for the scholarship.

"I think [this bill] brings that pride in those individuals that allows them access into higher education, allows them access into the technical college they want to go to, and gives them a lot more opportunities that they want to build success for families and the future within the State of Washington," Sen. Matt Boehnke, the Senate bill's prime sponsor, said.

Online course advertising bill passes Senate

March 4 — A bill that would allow community and technical colleges to advertise online course offerings outside of their districts passed the Senate Tuesday with a 48 to 1 vote. SB 5663, in its original version, would have required 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. Sen. Vandana Slatter, the bill's prime sponsor, said the original bill was narrowed to not impact the state's budget but hoped the idea would come back in the future.

"I think this is a really important first step because it takes many years to figure out how to coordinate all the systems," she said. "The dream would be to create a virtual campus that all the colleges could plug in their online programs, and a student could show up and actually sign up for whatever courses that they need."

Sen. Judy Warnick, the ranking committee member on the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, also spoke in favor of the bill on the Senate floor.

"When I first saw this bill come through the policy committee, I was very, very unsure about it because we do have so many good community colleges all over the state," she said. "But with this amendment ... it is going to be helping people that need classes that cannot travel to various institutions."

Trustees confirmed by Senate

The Senate this week confirmed three trustees to the boards of their colleges:

Coming up next week

Floor action continues until Wednesday at 5 p.m. when session reaches its floor cutoff deadline. Bills need to pass their originating chamber by that time in order to continue in the legislative process. Policy committees will get back to work starting Thursday taking up bills sent from the opposite chamber.