After saying in March that they were prioritizing student aid “so more people can access the great institutions of higher education in our state,” the Legislature enacted life-altering student aid cuts affecting some 7,000 students receiving financial aid at not-for-profit, independent universities in Washington. This last-minute change, made days before the Legislature adjourned, is a troubling and unnecessarily damaging move for our state.
Those 7,000 students represent about a third of all undergraduates at the state’s independent campuses. And unless the state reverses its cuts, a total of roughly 13,000 Washington students will see their aid amounts reduced over the next two years. About 100,000 total students are grant recipients.
As the state Legislature prepares to reconvene in 2026, the time is now to mitigate harm to students who depend on this assistance to complete their degrees. This is more than just the right thing to do for our students. It’s also the right financial choice. This scholarship funding represents less than 0.1% of the state-funded operating budget and will more than pay for itself with the taxes and other contributions these college graduates will make in Washington. Independent universities deliver college graduates who are ready to fill local jobs, at a fraction of the cost of public institutions to taxpayers. Any business — even one that’s struggling — would consider this investment a no-brainer.
State policymakers need to make things right, financially and ethically. They made a promise to Washington students through the College Bound program when they were as young as middle school. The state made a commitment to these students that, as long as those students made a commitment of their own to meet certain standards, the state would be there with financial aid for college or university. That promise is now broken. What message does that send to students about what they can count on?
With these cuts, these Washingtonians — 67% identify as students of color, 65% identify as female, and 62% are first-generation in college — stand to lose as much as $27,000 in Washington College Grant and College Bound funding over a four-year degree.
In addition to attending school, these students are often balancing work and supporting their families. They are focused on higher education for the transformative power it offers them. They are Washington’s coming generation of nurses and therapists, educators, engineers and entrepreneurs.
As The Seattle Times editorial board said this spring, “Twenty-somethings who graduate, enter the workforce and start contributing to the economy as taxpayers will be essential to creating a sound Washington economy going forward.”
We greatly fear these cuts will force students to stop or drop out, borrow more, or forego enrolling. The public-private partnerships that campuses have built upon the foundation of state and federal aid to support Washingtonians will no longer pencil out, forcing campuses to spend their limited financial aid dollars on fewer students. Reductions in student aid of this magnitude will deny students access to a powerful source of long-term prosperity.
Students have many stories about what financial assistance means to them.
“When I was in high school, I had no plans of necessarily achieving a higher education financially, I just didn’t think it was ever going to be possible,” says Cher Aguilar Henriquez, a 2025 graduate of Saint Martin’s University. “Thanks to the Washington College Grant, I was able to pursue a higher education that no one in my family had ever been able to pursue, and I now get to go on and choose my own future.”
Taezha Watson, a Pacific Lutheran University senior, said, “Because of the Washington College Grant, I’m funded and supported and receiving an education that makes me a better person. I wouldn’t be here without financial aid, and I think that’s why it’s so important to me.”
We do not want to see hardworking and motivated students defer or derail their dreams, precisely at a time when the state’s workforce most needs them. Make good on this promise. For all of us.
