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State Senate Republicans are taking pains this week to try to finger Democrats as the bad guys when it comes to cutting higher education funding and allowing steep college tuition hikes. And the Republican chair of the Senate’s higher education subcommittee has sent Gov. Jay Inslee a letter asking him not to trim higher education at all this biennium. Here’s the background:  Last…

UPDATE, 8:25 p.m.: Incumbent Port Commissioner John Creighton was holding a lead over Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis in Tuesday’s initial election results, and three other incumbents were also leading their challengers. In initial returns, Creighton was leading 69 percent to 31 percent. Voters were supporting two appointed commissioners, Courtney Gregoire and Stephanie Bowman. Gregoire was beating Socialist…

UPDATE: 10:01 p.m. Shari Song said she was not yet ready to concede on Tuesday night to Reagan Dunn in the race for King County Council District 9. Dunn was leading Song 58 percent to 42 percent in initial returns. Dunn said he thought “voters were happy with the job I’m doing and saw through some of…

Higher education leaders said Friday they were pleased with the proposed legislative budget that bumps higher education funding by 12 percent and freezes tuition for at least a year for in-state undergraduate students. The proposed budget adds $119 million in funding over two years, plus an extra $18 million to grow computer science and engineering programs…

Sen. Barbara Bailey said Thursday morning that the Legislature is very close to agreeing to the details of a higher-education budget that would increase funding by 10 percent and freeze tuition for the next two years. Bailey made her comments around the same time that other legislative leaders announced a tentative deal on the overall…

Earlier this year, the presidents of Washington’s four-year colleges promised to freeze in-state undergraduate tuition if the Legislature would allocate an additional $225 million to fund higher education. But that scenario is looking less likely every day. If there are no increases — but also no cuts — tuition is likely to go up by about…

University of Washington President Michael Young spent a day in Olympia earlier this week, and came away with concerns about how some policy decisions are being made without regard to funding issues, he told The Seattle Times editorial board Thursday. In an hour-long meeting with editorial writers, Young said that legislators are making broad policy decisions…

This post has been updated to include new information A two-year-old bit of legislation allowing state universities to charge variable tuition rates for different majors may be headed for a quick demise. Late Thursday, the House Higher Education Committee voted unanimously to end the so-called “differential tuition.” The bill, House Bill 1043, now goes for a…

The latest attempt to address the escalating cost of higher education comes from Rep. Gerry Pollet, D-Seattle, who’s introduced a bill that would limit state college tuition increases to the rate of inflation through 2018. HB 1624 aims to move Washington toward a 50-50 split between students and the state, with students paying half the cost…

State Sen. Ed Murray chastised Sen. Rodney Tom Friday in a strongly-worded letter that questions Tom’s leadership as chair of a committee that wants to shut down the state’s prepaid college tuition program. Tom, who described the Guaranteed Education Tuition program as a “Ponzi scheme” during a phone interview Friday, said it would be “fiscally…