Grappling with a projected nearly $16 billion budget shortfall over the next four years, House and Senate budget writers on Monday released their versions of the 2025-27 operating budget and 2025 supplemental budget. Committees heard testimony on the proposals on Tuesday.
Also this week, the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday approved the three State Board-requested bills it heard testimony on last week: tuition waivers for Tribal elders, College Bound Scholarship expansion, and tuition waivers for high school completion. That committee additionally held work sessions featuring representatives from the community and technical college system. On Tuesday, they learned more about Basic Education for Adults programs, and Wednesday they heard about the impacts to colleges caused by federal grant freezes and executive orders.
House, Senate budget committees hear testimony on operating proposals
March 25 — Facing a nearly $16 billion projected budget shortfall over the next four years, House and Senate budget writers released their versions of the 2025-27 biennial operating budget and the 2025 supplemental operating budget that adjusts the budget ending June 30.
For the community and technical college system, the House budget takes back the $28.6 million from the fiscal year 2025 appropriation stemming from a miscalculation by the state budget office. For the biennial proposal, the House budget provides for employee cost of living increases, but it makes reductions to the part of the budget that provides full state funding for those increases. The proposal also funds the newly formed Hospitality Center of Excellence at Columbia Basin College, supports the CTE dual credit pilot program, and provides additional funding for Student Emergency Assistance Grants.
The House budget removes the amount that would have been carried forward from the OFM calculation error, reduces general foundational support provided in the Workforce Education Investment Act, includes a two-year freeze of the inflationary increase related to a statutory increase in the backfill provided by the Legislature when it capped tuition rates under the College Affordability Program, retracts the inflationary increase for the Centers of Excellence that was provided in the 2023-25 budget. It also includes a general fund decrease to various programs and provisos.
Chris Bailey, interim executive director of the State Board, thanked House budget writers for supporting the CTE dual credit pilot program and student emergency assistance grants in testimony to the House Appropriations Committee.
“As you move forward, we urge you to maintain the $28.6 million and preserve state institutional support to ensure 100% funding for compensation increases, and to keep community and technical college as whole as possible to serve students, communities, and employers,” he said.
The Senate’s 2025 supplemental budget proposal maintains funding for the $28.6 million error for fiscal year 2025, but the 2025-27 budget removes it from carrying forward. The biennial budget also includes 100% state-funded compensation increases for employees but calls for a “temporary salary reduction” which can be achieved through furloughs or equivalent compensation savings. The budget also includes funding for the Hospitality Center of Excellence and additional financial aid outreach specialists for Educational Service District 171 — which covers north central Washington — under the Financial Aid Outreach and Completion Pilot program.
Other reductions include a general fund decrease and cuts to programs and provisos. Under a bill heard by the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Monday, SB 5785, colleges and universities would be authorized to increase their tuition above the normally authorized amount one time to offset some of the reductions.
Chemene Crawford, president of Everett Community College, thanked members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee for maintaining the $28.6 million in the supplemental budget and for fully funding cost of living increases and financial aid outreach specialists in the biennial budget.
“We are concerned, however, about the effect proposed reductions will have on our valuable faculty and staff in the already challenging environment many of our colleges are experiencing,” she said.
Bailey also thanked the committee for maintaining the supplemental budget funding and asked that they keep that as they negotiate with House budget writers. He also expressed thanks for full funding for cost-of-living increases and the financial aid outreach specialists.
“We are concerned about the impact of a tuition increase on our student's ability to come to our colleges,” he said.
House higher education committee learns about Basic Education for Adults programs
March 25 — Members of the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee spent their meeting time Tuesday learning more about Basic Education for Adults programs at community and technical colleges. On hand from the State Board were William Durden, the department’s director, Nicole Daughtry, policy associate overseeing the I-BEST program, and Troy Goracke, policy associate who serves as the state’s GED® administrator. The panel provided the committee an overview of the programs offered in Basic Education for Adults, including funding, demographics, and outcomes.
Washington state, Durden pointed out, has a gap between job growth and people able to fill those jobs, a shortfall of about 600,000 people over the decade. Additionally, about 498,000 Washington adults do not have a high school diploma or equivalent. Basic Education for Adults programs helps fill that gap by helping people learn English and math, earn a high school diploma, and transition to college-level courses with the ultimate goal of helping them get good-paying jobs.
“The people who are the focus of current college initiatives are going to school to improve their economic prospects, but people also go back to school to feel their minds working and to learn new things to help their kids to feel competent, to remedy a poor education, to redefine who they are and to start over,” he said.
Basic Education for Adults programs receive about $14 million from the federal government, $3.2 million in state funding to support immigrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Ukraine, and $750,000 from the state for I-BEST. Colleges, Durden pointed out, heavily subsidize Basic Education for Adults programs with their own funds. Students pay $25 per quarter to take classes, a fee that’s oftentimes waived.
“These programs aren't financial aid-eligible, so we don't charge full college tuition,” Durden said. “There has to be subsidy behind the scenes to make these classes accessible and affordable for students who are looking to improve their lives.”
Colleges served about 47,000 Basic Education for Adults students in the 2023-24 school year, about 16% of students served by the state’s 34 community and technical colleges. About two-thirds are women, 58% are between the ages of 25 and 44, and 69% identify as students of color. About 33% of students come to learn English already holding a post-high school or professional degree from another country.
“We're a critical effort in engaging that talent and helping them boost their English skills so they can get on that pathway to do the work that they are already skilled to do in their home country,” Durden said.
Moving to outcomes, Durden pointed out that Basic Education for Adults programs met each performance indicator set by the US Department of Education, including in employment, earnings, credential attainment rate, and measurable skill gains. Students earning a GED® or high school diploma through High School+, the state’s competency-based high school diploma program, in the state’s prisons is also on the rise, with 249 people earning a GED® and 458 people earning a high school diploma in the 2023-24 school year.
Turning to I-BEST, Daughtry gave committee members a close look at the nationally-recognized program. The I-BEST program, developed in Washington state, uses team teaching so students learn basic skills in reading, math, or English language from one instructor while the other provides job training. The program’s administrators work with local workforce boards to ensure students are learning in-demand skills. In-class support helps students navigate challenges like childcare and transportation to help them stay enrolled.
“After just one to three quarters after completing the I-BEST program, folks can walk away with an industry-recognized credential or certificate and go right into the workforce and begin to make living-wages to take care of their families,” she said. “All of the students who are enrolled in I-BEST programs are not just learning basic skills, but they're also learning skills that they will translate into industry.”
Wrapping up the State Board’s presentation was Goracke who highlighted two State Board-requested bills before the committee this session, thanking members for their support: SB 5542 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 and SB 5543 that would make students who receive a high school equivalency certificate eligible for the College Bound Scholarship.
“Those are the sorts of innovative programs that make the rest of what the programming is doing really beneficial for students,” he said.
The committee then turned to South Puget Sound Community College’s Jennifer Barber, dean of transition studies, and Anna Grapeniuk, a student who recently immigrated from Ukraine and took English language classes, to learn how Basic Education for Adults programs work in practice. The college served about 1,600 students and over 150 refugees that, Barber reported, received support from state funding through its refugee support and I-BEST allocation.
“We're not working with traditional college age students for the most part. Creating a strong sense of belonging is very important for all of our students,” she said. “That they feel like they belong at the college, that they see themselves as college students, they see themselves as successful college students who can meet their goals, and they see themselves as people who are worth the support that we offer them at the colleges as they work towards that.”
Grapeniuk told committee members her story of immigrating to the United States from Ukraine in February 2022 following the Russian invasion of the country. Having studied journalism and theology and earning a master’s degree there, she started at South Puget Sound to learn English.
“It gave me a great opportunity to improve my language and immerse myself in American culture,” she said.
In her third quarter of English as a Second Language, Grapeniuk decided to start coursework in cybersecurity.
“It's because the I-BEST program has two teachers that help students to be more successful that now I am studying cybersecurity, and I like it,” she said.
Federal funding, executive order impacts heard in House higher education committee
March 26 — As the operating budget proposals dominated the conversation in Olympia this week, the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee at meeting Wednesday took a step back to learn about the impacts of federal grant freezes and executive orders on the state’s colleges and universities. Chris Bailey, the State Board’s interim executive director, and William Durden, the State Board’s director for basic education for adults who also works extensively on federal government relations, presented on behalf of the community and technical college system.
The college system receives about $360 million every year in direct and indirect funding from the federal government. Over half of that amount is related to federal financial aid and student loan programs. Programs in Basic Education for Adults and Workforce — Perkins V, Basic Food, Employment and Training, and WorkFirst — also receive significant support.
“Our system relies on a significant amount of federal funding from a variety of federal agencies and sources,” Bailey said.
The Trump administration’s Jan. 27 executive order freezing federal grant funding, Durden said, has had the biggest effect on the college system. Specifically, the State Board is monitoring agency reductions in force and administrative leave, stop work orders, funding reductions and rescissions, and future uncertainty with grant program administration, additional budget cuts, and changes to program up for reauthorization.
“The federal grant freeze and further executive orders have created a cascade of uncertainty and risk that implicates all of our federally-funded programs,” Durden said.
Diving into program details, the basic education for adults at the state’s community and technical colleges and partner community-based organizations received $13.7 million in funding during the last federal fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2024. That money supported nearly 36,500 students in the 2023-24 school year in below college-level education and instruction. In cutbacks, basic education program support at the Department of Education went from 23 employees to eight, including the elimination of the Monitoring and Administration branch and Innovation and Improvement branch as well as Washington state’s area coordinator position. Multiple technical assistance and training contracts are under stop orders, including teacher professional development program and technical assistance support for data collection and reporting.
“This program has been hit particularly hard at the federal level,” Durden said.
Washington state received $26 million in the 2023-24 federal fiscal year for Perkins V, a program that supports career and technical education, including technology and equipment. Of that, the college system received $14 million. Over 87,000 students were enrolled in professional-technical programs in the 2023-24 school year.
“This is some really critical funding to make sure that our workforce programs stay up to date with technology changes and equipment changes that are needed for our programs to be relevant to the industries we're preparing students in,” Durden said.
In the Basic Food Employment and Training program, low-income students receive federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, or SNAP, benefits. It also provides funding for education-related costs like tuition, fees, books, and tools, as well as related support in areas like academic and career advising, transportation, childcare, and dedicated case management. Administered by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, the community and technical college system received matched funds of $15 million in federal reimbursements in the 2023-24 federal fiscal year which supported 6,836 students. It’s on track to draw down $16 million in the 2024-25 federal fiscal year.
“When we come to the impacts, we do see $230 billion in a reduction to SNAP in the current continuing resolution. Now that does not call out BFET funding, but as they figure out what that reduction looks like, it could certainly impact BFET funding, so that could impact the amount of money that would be available for match for what we put in state and locally,” Durden said.
The last program highlighted was WorkFirst, a Department of Social and Health Services-administered program funded by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grants. WorkFirst helps low-income families as they find jobs and complete their education. Similar to BFET, WorkFirst provides funding for education-related costs like tuition, fees, books, and tools in addition to help with items like transportation, medical costs, and academic and career advising. Community and technical colleges worked with just under 3,000 students in the 2023-24 school year and received $16 million in funding.
“Interruptions to federal financial aid would create significant gaps for low-income students. Resources like WorkFirst and BFET alone aren't enough to get a student to the finish line. Of course, they're relying on multiple sources [of funding], so a hit in one area causes strain in the other areas,” Durden said.
Opening up for questions, Rep. Mari Leavitt asked about how college budgets could be affected by state cuts in the proposed operating budgets coupled with the federal action.
“There's this huge potential for loss of federal funds, and that's going to be a slow bleed. We're going to find out individually — one court case at a time, one ruling at a time, new executive orders — so it's a prolonged situation for us with a lot of uncertainty. It makes it difficult to run a college. We need to have sustainable budgets. We need to have predictable budgets,” Bailey said.
Coming up next week
The Senate is expected to be in session tomorrow to debate and vote on its version of the operating budget. The House is slated to do the same for its version on Monday. Once the budgets are approved by their respective chambers, negotiators will begin talks to reconcile differences with the goal of passing the budget by the end of session April 27.
The House and Senate are expected to release their versions of the capital budget early next week, with the House Capital Budget Committee and the Senate Ways and Means Committee ready to hear testimony at their hearings Tuesday.
Also next week, session reaches its next cutoff deadline on Wednesday when bills from the opposite chamber need to be voted out of those policy committees in order to continue the legislative process. For the community and technical college system, the bill that would continue the Customized Training Program's business and occupation tax credit is up for a hearing in the House Finance Committee's meeting on Thursday. The House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee is slated to hold a work session on College in the High School at its Tuesday meeting.
