GET program enrollment opens tomorrow

GET enrollment opens Tuesday, November 1, for families looking for a safe and convenient way to save for college. Record numbers of new accounts have been opened over the past three years as thousands of parents opt for the state’s guarantee and GET’s flexible, tax-advantaged saving options. The new enrollment year runs November 1, 2011 through May 31, 2012.

More than 135,000 accounts have been opened since the program began in 1998. The prepaid tuition Program welcomed 15,284 new accounts last year, which was the second highest year ever for the program.

GET accounts can easily be used at nearly any public or private college, university, or vocational school in the country. Already, GET students have used their accounts at colleges in all 50 states and five foreign countries. GET is a 529 plan offering tax-free growth and withdrawals. It is a self-sustaining program and is not dependent upon state general funds for ongoing operations.

The cost of one GET unit today is $163. The future value of 100 units is equal to one year of resident, undergraduate tuition and required state fees at the highest-priced Washington public university (UW or WSU), no matter how much tuition increases.

Families can buy any amount from 1 to 500 units per student, and the average GET account holds just under 200 units. Betty Lochner, director of the GET program, encourages families to save an amount that fits best within their budget. “The important part is to get started,” she said, “and then have a plan to contribute regularly over the years. Even smaller amounts will add up over time.”

The value of a GET account is measured in “units.” The monetary value is the same wherever GET units are used. If a college costs more than UW or WSU, the student pays the difference. If it costs less, a GET account can also be applied towards room & board, books, or other qualified expenses.

"We are expecting another strong year," said Lochner. "With surging tuition costs, GET is a very good option, especially for families with young children. Parents who start early have the opportunity to save literally thousands of dollars on the future cost of college," she said.

More than 11 percent of new accounts are opened by a student’s grandparents.

GET's website at www.get.wa.gov offers details, charts, planning tools and answers for many of the questions families may have about the program.  Accounts can be opened online, and Customer Service staff is available at (800) 955-2318 to help in any way needed.

Cuts in student aid and college budgets proposed to help ease state budget crisis

A package of possible state spending cuts—including a proposed 15 percent ($166 million) reduction in state support for public colleges and universities, and the suspension of all remaining State Work Study funding ($8 million)—was proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire Thursday.

A budget document prepared with the assistance of the Office of Financial Management noted a range of possible budget cuts across many areas of government.

To help ensure transparency in the budget development process, the Governor took the unusual step of announcing likely elements of her budget proposal before the proposal is ready to be delivered to the Legislature and the public.

At a Thursday morning news conference, the Governor said she expected that her proposals will generate feedback from communities and stakeholder groups that could lead to changes in the list of cuts she will include in her official state budget proposal.  “But not much—our options are limited,” the Governor said.

HECB Executive Director Don Bennett said today that he already has urged the Governor’s staff and key legislative representatives not to suspend the State Work Study program, even if preserving it would mean a slight reduction in the State Need Grant (SNG) program.

Later in the day, at a meeting of the Higher Education Steering Committee, which includes representatives from baccalaureate and two-year institutions,  the Governor again alluded to the difficult choices the state will have to make to deal with the current budget crisis, and the potential impact those decisions could have on higher education. “I’m surprised some of you are talking to me,” the Governor remarked to committee members.

Governor Gregoire has called the Legislature back in for a special session Nov. 28, to address a projected $1.4 billion shortfall in state revenue for the remainder of the 2011-13 biennium. In light of the shortfall, the Governor has proposed a $2 billion spending reduction in the biennial budget.  

“I don’t want anyone to think that I like these options,” the Governor said. “The list of options I’ve presented hurts. This is not what I signed up for when I started as a caseworker 40 years ago.  But it’s what the world economy handed our state and our country.”

Another budget cutting proposal that has been mentioned but not recommended by the Governor is elimination or reduction of the State Need Grant (SNG) program (up to $303 million). The SNG program annually provides financial assistance to 72,000 low-income students in Washington.  

Also on the table but not recommended by the Governor is an even deeper 20 percent reduction ($222 million) in General Fund support  for the state’s six public baccalaureate institutions and 34 community and technical colleges. 

The Governor’s recommended 15 percent reduction would come on top of a 24 percent reduction in state funding for public colleges and universities approved earlier this year.

To partly offset the impact of continuing cuts to higher education, the Legislature earlier this year granted the baccalaureate institutions expanded flexibility to raise tuition.

More information on the budget reduction alternatives is available on the Office of Financial Management website.

Many working to ensure College Bound Scholarship students succeed next fall

The first College Bound Scholarship students are on track to graduate from high school this spring, and a major effort is under way to ensure their successful transition to higher education.

Approximately 16,000 low-income seventh and eighth grade students in the Class of 2012 signed up for the College Bound Scholarship. How many of those students will maintain eligibility and claim the financial assistance remains to be seen.

The College Bound Scholarship is designed to supplement State Need Grant assistance for students who meet income eligibility requirements, work hard in school, avoid legal problems and successfully apply to an eligible higher education institution after high school graduation.

The state’s Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education recognizes that more students whose families are low-income or have not previously participated in higher education will have to enroll in postsecondary education if the state is to satisfy future demand for trained employees.

The Legislature’s initial $7.4 million College Bound Scholarship allocation, which was invested in Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) units, has grown in value to approximately $12 million since 2007, and now awaits dispersal to eligible students. 

Meanwhile, the HECB, the K-12 system, college staff and community organization partners are working to make sure as many eligible students as possible receive the benefit.

Earlier this month, the HECB, which administers the College Bound program, sponsored a live, online program to give high school counselors, teachers and mentors a basic overview of the College Bound program, an explanation of how the scholarship will be calculated and awarded, and other information. Interest was strong, with about 350 educators and others participating.

The HECB also has provided expanded College Bound information on its website for Class of 2012 students and their families.

Among other College Bound Scholarship events on the horizon, Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Community Colleges are planning three College Bound kickoff events Wednesday Oct. 26. College staff and volunteers will be on hand to explain the steps necessary to maintain eligibility and be ready for college entry in 2012.  Approximately 600 College Bound Scholarship students will be graduating from Seattle schools this spring.

Seattle’s College Bound kickoff events will be held at each of the three Seattle Community College campuses from 1:30-4:30 p.m. Directions and additional information are available on the Seattle Community College website.

Strategic Master Plan ‘Next Steps’ discussion set for October 24

Despite deep and continuing cuts to higher education funding in Washington, the state needs to continue its focus on how to increase educational attainment among a much greater percentage of its younger citizens.

The central challenge faced by the state’s higher education leaders, who have been working to update the 2008 Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education, is whether this can be done with far fewer state resources.

In 2008, the Legislature approved the state’s first 10-year Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education, a framework for the continuing improvement of the state’s public two- and four-year colleges and universities.

The plan’s central goal was to raise the level of educational attainment in Washington, especially among the state’s younger citizens. Washington is near the bottom of all states in the percentage of 24-35 year-olds who have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher.

The 2008 SMP proposed increasing the number of funded FTEs and funding them at a higher rate. It recommended ways to reward institutional progress for raising STEM degree production and improving student performance. And it placed a strong emphasis on increased institutional accountability.

Earlier this year, the HECB convened an advisory committee to help develop a required four-year update to the master plan. The committee includes presidents and provosts from colleges and universities, legislators, business leaders, and representatives from state workforce and education agencies. 

The committee and a smaller ‘kitchen cabinet’ workgroup have focused on developing a draft document that outlines potential ‘next steps’ needed to guide system development over the next four years and beyond. 

A PowerPoint presentation will be posted to the HECB website following the steering committee meeting being held at 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 24, at the office of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (Cascade Rooms A & B). 

Higher Education Steering Committee continues discussion on roles for new agency

How much state coordination and oversight for Washington’s public higher education institutions is needed and appropriate, and what type of oversight should that be?  These and other questions form the basis of a discussion taking place about replacing the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) with a new Council for Higher Education (CHE).

Leaders from the state’s two- and four-year colleges and universities, legislators, citizen representatives and the Governor held their second meeting recently as they work toward a December deadline to develop a recommendation on the composition and duties of the new Council. The HECB is eliminated in July 2012 and will be replaced by the CHE. The discussions to date have been spirited.

For example, some have asked if the baccalaureate institutions should be left largely alone by the state to carry out their own strategic plans. After all, each has its own Governor-appointed Board of Regents, its own strategic plan, advisory boards, alumni and fundraising bodies and many other direct ties to the public. The state’s 34 community and technical colleges report to a separate state board and have a similar array of formal and informal public advisory bodies. 

On the other hand, should the state’s role in policy, planning, and oversight actually be strengthened as it distributes increasingly scarce resources for higher education on behalf of its citizens? What is the appropriate type of organization to safeguard the interests of the public and students with respect to higher education? Can institutions become so big or independent they lose touch with the public objectives they were created to advance?

Other conversations have focused on regulatory versus planning functions. When the state focuses too much on regulatory activities – such as degree program approval and other monitoring and reporting functions – is it straying from the more important role of long-range higher education policy and planning? Or are such regulatory functions necessary to ensure progress on central strategic objectives – such as raising statewide educational attainment? 

HECB Executive Director Don Bennett acknowledged the tensions inherent in the HECB’s dual role in planning and regulation. A key issue is whether regulatory activities can overshadow the Board’s more important core function of working to ensure greater levels of student access and success, he said.

The central objective of the state’s Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education is raising statewide educational attainment by increasing the number of students prepared and motivated to do college work, by focusing on ways to ensure greater student success among those who do enroll in higher education, by expanding system capacity, and by focusing degree production on key areas of need, he said. 

Michael Young, president of the University of Washington, suggested that state-level efforts to improve student performance need to take into account the differing missions of the state’s colleges and universities as well as the scale of operations.

For example, James Gaudino, president of Central Washington University, said if the state applied the same measure for increasing degree production to both the UW and Central, the requirement could adversely affect the UW’s capacity to conduct innovative research that boosts the economy.

It has been suggested that one way to increase STEM degree production might be to provide the new CHE a pool of money to reward baccalaureate institutions for achieving specific goals. A provision to create a Fund for Innovation with the HECB, similar to an SBCTC program, was included in System Design legislation passed in 2010.

Task force members also have suggested the new CHE will need a strong focus on communicating the importance of higher education to the public.  In addition, they have emphasized the importance of producing data and analysis to help the Governor, Legislature and others make policy decisions.  Gov. Gregoire noted the HECB’s work in assisting the Higher Education Funding Task Force (HEFT) in fall 2010. The HEFT report included several recommendations that became law in 2011.

The Governor’s staff has developed a list of current HECB functions as well as duties the CHE might perform in the future.    The final two steering committee meetings will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 27 and Nov. 9 in Olympia. Check the HECB website for the meeting location.

UW dorms full as fall quarter began

One indication of student demand for higher education programs at baccalaureate institutions is the volume of incoming students seeking college dormitory space. The Daily at the University of Washington reported 49 students still were on a waiting list for Seattle campus dorm rooms last week, with other students getting by in temporary accommodations such as dorm lounges.

Higher education representatives discuss realities of current budget crisis

Unless Washington finds a way to adequately fund public higher education, it will risk falling even farther behind in its effort to broadly raise educational attainment, representatives from the state’s public and private colleges and universities said recently at an HECB meeting in Olympia.

Those who spoke indicated that failure to substantially increase the percentage of Washington citizens who complete a postsecondary education certificate or degree would seriously undermine the state’s future societal and economic development and vitality.

 Their assessment followed a sobering presentation by state revenue forecaster Arun Raha, who explained factors that led to his September projection of another $1.4 billion drop in state revenue over the balance of the 2011-13 biennium.  That projection prompted the Governor to direct higher education institutions and other state agencies to propose additional program cuts and to call the Legislature into a November special session.

For higher education, the ongoing budget crisis is a key reason the state is now well short of meeting the goals state leaders embraced four years ago in the Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education. That plan, which is being updated by the HECB, called for significant increases in the number of students served and degrees produced.

Mike Reilly, Executive Director of the Council of Presidents, which represents public four-year colleges and universities, said expanded tuition-setting authority granted in the last legislative session has played an essential role in enabling public baccalaureate institutions to continue to maintain current service levels.  However, it has also helped mask the reality of deep cuts in state General Fund support for higher education, he said.

The state’s current $31 billion biennial budget includes less money for higher education than was included in a 1989 state budget of $12.7 billion, Reilly said. “We need significant increases in students with postsecondary credentials to meet the economic needs of our state, and we are just simply not on that path,” Reilly said.  The system stabilization that has been achieved through recent painful tuition increases would be thrown “completely out of the water” by additional budget cuts, he maintained.

Before the recession, Washington’s higher education system operated with a high degree of efficiency and collaboration, but in a state with one of the worst public-baccalaureate participation rates in the nation, Reilly said.  At the same time, the state’s population was changing to include growing numbers of lower-income and minority residents whose college participation rates were even lower than the state average, he said. Then budget cuts helped to stymie progress on improving college participation rates.

Charlie Earl, Executive Director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, told the HECB that demand for higher education services remains strong at two-year institutions, and is likely to remain so as long as the economic downturn continues. The number of full-time equivalent students served at community and technical colleges has grown from 140,000 to 162,000, but only about 8,000 of that number have been served by adding new faculty.  The remainder was accommodated through efficiency measures such as class overloads and the elimination of classes and academic programs with low student demand or little prospect of jobs after graduation. 

Despite those efforts by college faculty and administrators, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 students will not be served by the state’s community and technical colleges through 2013, Earl said. An additional 10 percent budget cut in response to the latest revenue shortfall will add another 18,000 to the unserved list, he said.

“In our state the need is growing, but the effort we need to put into that growing need is even greater,” said Vi Boyer, president and CEO of the Independent Colleges of Washington (ICW), which advocates on behalf of 10 private, non-profit colleges in the state.

Boyer said students attending ICW schools can do so with manageable levels of student debt in part because of the traditionally strong financial aid programs offered in Washington.

Increasing numbers of K-12 students whose parents did not attend college are seeking admission, she said, making continued support for the State Need Grant and outreach programs such as GEAR UP and the College Bound Scholarship doubly important. Otherwise, the state risks losing a generation of potential college graduates.

“If we continue to under-fund higher education and under-fund the State Need Grant, we will lose that generation, but we will also drive up health care costs, we’ll drive up unemployment rates, and we’ll drive up incarceration costs,” Boyer said.

House committee continues discussions on higher education's importance to regional economies

The House Committee on Higher Education is moving its “Chautauqua” series of meetings to Western Washington to continue a statewide discussion on the importance of higher education in meeting the needs of Washington residents and the state’s regional economies.

Following sessions last month in Spokane and Ellensburg, two more Chautauqua meetings will be held the week of Oct. 10 Western Washington.  The first will be Wednesday Oct. 12 in Pigott Hall Auditorium on the Seattle University campus, 901 12^th Ave., Seattle.  That session will begin at 11 a.m. and conclude at 5 p.m.

The second session will be Thursday Oct. 13 at Skagit Valley Community College, 2405 E. College Way, Mount Vernon, starting at 9 a.m.  A final session in the series is scheduled Nov. 2 at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia.

The Chautauqua meeting at Seattle University will feature panels on student completion efforts, and two industry panels (for technology and manufacturing) will bring together industry leaders and educators to discuss the regional economy and what educational institutions could do to help meet those needs.

At the end of the day, Enrique Cerna of KCTS TV in Seattle will moderate an open-mike discussion involving the audience and Higher Education Committee members concerning the state’s higher education priorities and related matters.

Lunch will be provided during the Seattle University session, and anyone with an interest in higher education is invited to attend. 

Report affirms GET program stability as long as tuition hikes don't go on indefinitely

The Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) Program is likely to remain on solid financial footing—even in the face of sharp tuition increases—as long as the increases do not go on indefinitely and significantly dampen demand for GET units by middle-income families saving for college, according to a new report submitted to the Legislature.

The report was prepared at the direction of the Legislature through ESSB 5749, which was passed earlier this year.  It directed the GET Committee, with assistance from the State Actuary, to report on current program solvency and determine if changes should be made.

The five-member GET Committee, comprised of citizens and state officials, sets GET unit prices and establishes Program policies. A new Legislative Advisory Committee was established through ESSB 5749 to advise the Program. The Program is administered by the HECB.

During the last legislative session, a report was requested to address the potential impact that significant tuition increases could have on the Program and to report on decisions regarding the Program’s enrollment period, unit price, payout value and custom monthly plan options.

The GET Program guarantees that 100 GET units purchased at today’s unit price of $163 will cover one year of resident, undergraduate tuition and state-mandated fees at the state’s highest-priced public university—either UW or WSU—in the future, no matter how much it increases.  A GET account can be used to pay tuition and other qualified expenses at nearly any public or private university, college or technical school in the country.  Over 135,000 GET accounts have been opened since the Program began in 1998, and students have already used over 23,000 of those accounts to attend schools nationwide.

While some uncertainties exist, the report said there is considerable evidence to suggest that, over the long term, the current GET fund is large enough, and demand is consistent enough, to weather the current period of escalating tuition.  GET’s new enrollment year begins November 1. For more information www.get.wa.gov

Strategic goals should not be forgotten in discussions on state-level higher education structure

Compelling issues make now an appropriate time to ask how the state can best organize to make progress on three well-established higher education goals:  raising educational attainment, expanding college access, and improving college accountability and performance, HECB Executive Director Don Bennett said last week.

The compelling issues include the state’s ongoing funding crisis, and the critical role higher education plays in creating jobs and building a strong state economy.

Bennett spoke last week during the first meeting of the Higher Education Steering Committee, which was created by the Legislature earlier this year to propose duties for a new Council on Higher Education. The Council is slated to begin work next July, replacing the HECB.

Without a continued emphasis on strategic goals and on promoting a widely supported public agenda for higher education, future progress on those goals is likely “to come by happenstance, not by design,” Bennett said. Meanwhile, the process of establishing a stronger accountability system runs the risk of becoming a “mechanical exercise,” he said.

Bennett noted that the state’s current Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education was an outgrowth of an earlier planning effort, called Washington Learns, which was initiated by Gov. Chris Gregoire early in her administration. The HECB is now drafting an update to the Strategic Master Plan that will reflect the goals of those earlier efforts, but also the state’s changed circumstances since the strategic plan was developed in 2007.

That year was the high-water mark for public funding of higher education in Washington. It also was a year when the state took aggressive steps to increase access to postsecondary education through programs such as GEAR UP and the College Bound Scholarship Program. Those programs encourage thousands of low-income middle and higher school students to begin preparing for college who might not have done so otherwise.  The first College Bound students will begin enrolling in postsecondary institutions next year.        

Because of the ongoing state budget crisis, it probably will not be possible to increase degree attainment or maintain college access or affordability to the extent envisioned in the original master plan, Bennett said. So the challenge for state leaders now will be to “dial in on those few things we really can make progress on, even while we wait for the economy to recover.”

The Higher Education Steering Committee, chaired by Governor Gregoire, also heard from two national experts on higher education governance—Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), and Aims McGuiness, NCHEMS senior associate.

McGuiness said the current higher education master plan developed by the HECB “would clearly get an eight on a scale of 10.”  But others pointed out there also have to be means in place for laudable goals to be followed up with action.

Both Jones and McGuiness stressed the importance of having a state entity with the capacity to raise key higher education issues with the Governor and Legislature that might not be brought up otherwise. Those include providing sufficient upper division capacity to allow lower division and transfer students to graduate, and making sure higher education institutions remain affordable for most students.

Jones suggested that part of the problem might be irritation among higher education institutions over administrative tasks that have been assigned to the HECB by the Legislature, and the fact that this list has grown longer over the years.  Jones compared those administrative tasks to barnacles on the hull of a boat that need to be scraped off occasionally for the boat to operate properly.  

At the close of last week’s steering committee meeting, a staff member from the Governor’s office shared a set of current HECB functions and other potential duties that a state-level higher education body might perform.  Some, but not necessarily all, of those functions could eventually become part of the Council on Higher Education’s responsibilities.

Governor Gregoire proposed that the steering committee have a discussion at its next meeting on Oct. 10, about potential “barnacles” associated with the current HECB configuration, as well as possible goals and functions of the successor agency.  

They also said it is important to have a thorough understanding of the problems that proposed changes in organizational structures are intended to fix.

News Release: Report finds room to increase number of high school students who take college classes

OLYMPIA – Offering qualified students more college-level course work in high school is one way to improve college-completion rates and create more room in college classrooms, according to a new policy brief prepared by the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB).

The paper, titled “Advance Placement and College Credit,” examines the potential impact that increased access to Advanced Placement (AP) classes in high school could have on the number of Washington students working toward postsecondary degrees and certificates. The paper is available at: www.hecb.wa.gov/sites/default/files/AP-FTE-PolicyBrief.pdf.

AP classes involve more rigorous coursework than normally is included in a high school class.  After completing an AP course, a student can take a test administered by The College Board that determines his or her proficiency in that subject area.  Test results, as well as policies at individual colleges and universities, determine the number of college credits a student may receive for taking an AP class.

Based on student performance on national pre-college tests, an HECB analysis found that expanding AP class availability could produce an additional 5,193 to 5,873 full-time equivalent (FTE) students who are essentially working on a college degree or certificate while still in high school.    

A similar number of FTE students (5,200) actually earned college credits through AP exams in 2010-11.  That figure is nearly equal to the average FTE enrollment at a state community college, the HECB policy brief notes.

College enrollments often are expressed in FTEs rather than actual headcounts because not all students take a full-time credit load.

“Overall, the analysis indicates that we could double the number of FTE credits earned through AP courses and exams if courses and exams were more broadly available,” the report concludes.

The conclusion has implications for students and families looking for ways to trim college costs at a time of increasing tuition costs, and for policymakers looking for ways to meet the state’s goal of increased degree production in a time of shrinking state budgets.

Although students must pay to take an AP examination to be eligible for college credit, the cost is substantially less than the tuition required to take an equivalent class in college.  The fee for the exam is $87 per test and, with waivers and state support, students with demonstrated financial need may pay as little as $5 per test. 

Students who earn college credits while in high school also gain greater flexibility in course selection later, and they may graduate sooner, further reducing college expenses and making room for other students who follow them, according to Randy Spaulding, HECB Director of Academic Affairs, who authored the policy brief.

The Launch Year Act (E2SHB 1808), passed by the Legislature earlier this year, is intended to expand the availability of high school programs such as AP and International Baccalaureate (IB), which offer college credit to high school students.

The Act directs the state’s public high schools to work toward the goal of enabling students to earn the equivalent of one year’s worth of postsecondary credit while still in high school.

By Dec. 1, 2011, and by June of each odd-numbered year thereafter, public colleges and universities must develop a master list of postsecondary courses that can be fulfilled by taking the AP, IB, or other recognized exam, and achieving a score qualifying a student for college credit.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction will distribute the list to school districts, and the HECB will annually publish the list on its website, as well as the exam scores needed to meet college-credit requirements.

News Release: Washington awarded $27 million to help students "GEAR UP" for college

OLYMPIA – The Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) has received a six-year, $27 million grant to increase college readiness and success for 6,500 low-income students in 40 middle and high schools statewide.

The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, will be administered by the HECB in partnership with the University of Washington, the College Success Foundation, Washington State Employees Credit Union, the Northwest Education Loan Association, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Governor’s office designated the HECB to administer the program.

“Washington is very pleased and appreciative of this funding.  Through this GEAR UP grant, more Washington low-income students will get the skills and support they need to make their dreams of a college education a reality,” Governor Chris Gregoire said.

Working in partnership with local school districts, GEAR UP provides tutoring, mentoring, college and career counseling, college visits, family activities, financial aid awareness, and other research-proven activities and services to help more students enroll and succeed in postsecondary programs. Washington State GEAR UP also provides professional development to teachers, counselors, and administrators to build program sustainability beyond the life of the grant.

“This grant is great news for Washington’s low-income students and their families,” said HECB Executive Director Don Bennett. “It will boost collaborations between K-12 and higher education institutions, provide support to schools through professional development opportunities and student services, and significantly increase the number of students prepared to enter and succeed in college.”

This is Washington’s third consecutive GEAR UP state grant.  It was awarded after successful completion of a competitive application process. Of the 296 entities that applied for the program, only 66 were awarded grants.

According to a recent study of Washington State GEAR UP by the Social & Economic Sciences Research Center at Washington State University, 72 percent of the program’s high school graduates enrolled in higher education programs during their first year after high school, compared to the state average of 45 percent of students who receive free or reduced price lunches at school.

For more information on the GEAR UP program, visit www.gearup.wa.gov.