As higher education poises for deep budget cuts in Olympia, Governor Gregoire and others are proposing stiff tuition hikes to help offset. Both houses are contemplating hundreds of millions in higher ed cuts,  estimating that 10,000 or more students might be turned away and thousands of faculty laid off. The House Ways and Means Committee produced its plan Tuesday as part of the House Democrats’ $31 billion two-year budget draft.   

Big tuition hikes, accompanied by more student financial aid, are now a foregone conclusion, the only question being how high. The governor on Tuesday laid out a plan to allow local colleges to boost the increases by as much as 14 percent a year at the four-year universities and 7 percent a year at the ceecees. See details here