Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 7, 1997
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Locke signs plan guaranteeing inflation-proof college tuition

OLYMPIA - Gov. Gary Locke today signed into law a plan allowing parents to pay for a future college education at today's prices. The program, which could begin operating next spring, will allow parents to buy tuition "units" at current tuition rates.


The units will then be redeemable at any public college or university in the state in the future, no matter how high tuition may have risen by the time the beneficiary needs the college education. The hedge against tuition hikes is significant because rapidly rising tuition costs present a barrier to college educations for many middle income families. In the past 10 years, tuition jumped 100 percent.


"A college education is too vital to the future of our children to be jeopardized by tuition inflation," Locke said. "Middle income families will see the doors to our state's colleges and universities opening a bit wider as this measure becomes law."


Fourteen states with similar programs have found them tremendously popular among parents. Colorado received 544 calls in the first hour their program was open, and within two weeks were flooded with 5,000 calls. Even with the Governor's signature today, Washington's program will not open for business until spring of 1998.


The Higher Education Coordinating Board, the state treasurer and the Office of Financial Management will work together to hire a consultant with financial and actuarial expertise to draft a business plan that will go before the Legislature in 1998. The business plan would have to spell out a number of detailed elements of how the program would work, such as the cost of a tuition unit, and whether organizations are authorized to purchase units for use as scholarships.

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