As this year’s legislative session has progressed, one thing has become painfully obvious for me: higher education is not a priority for the majority of our state leadership.

Of course, there are some, such as our governor and select legislators, who know the importance of an educated workforce able to adapt and meet complex challenges, but most see higher education as a burden and not as an economic development tool.

Student and university representatives have been largely shut out of the budget process by Senate and House leadership who prefer to make decisions in conference rather than in public hearings. The result of such an opaque practice is the no-win situation universities find themselves today.

Each university is faced with two options:
 1. Accept sweeping cuts, which would destroy academic quality and course availability. Thereby, drastically increasing the time it takes to graduate while lowering the value of degrees.
2. Ask the legislature for the flexibility to increase tuition significantly (14 percent in each of the next two years), in order to offset the cuts, which will result in only slightly less quality and course availability.

University leaders should never have to choose between a rock or a hard place.

While one could argue for days about Democrat this or Republican that, the crisis we find ourselves in boils down to two distinct problems: a lack of statewide long-term planning and the absence of legislative accountability.

The Higher Education Coordinating Board, a state entity charged with “strategic planning, coordination, monitoring and policy analysis for higher education in Washington” according to its Web site, develops a master plan for higher education every 10 years. While such a practice is important, it is far from enough.

What this state needs is a cohesive and long-term plan for all areas of public education from pre-K through graduate studies.

This plan must examine where we, as a state, want to be in 20 or 30 years from now and outline the steps necessary to accomplish those goals.

Once established, we need legislators willing to implement those changes and provide the funding to ensure their success.

Lawmakers should see such an education plan as a mandate, not as a rainy day fund. All too often, education is the first area to be cut in difficult economic times.

While I don’t know how everything will play out, I do know that students will certainly experience one or both of the two above options.

Where do we go from here?

Thankfully, there is much that we as students and citizens can do to create change.

First, be involved on campus.

This means more than attending a concert. Go to an Associated Students Board of Directors meeting, apply to serve on university committees, participate in the AS elections, join a club and contribute to the Viking Village online forums.  

An engaged citizenry is an informed citizenry.

Second, call or write your legislators and demand a fair shake for education.

Kevin Ranker, the 40th District’s freshman senator (and subsequently the representative of Western’s campus and most Western students), met with the AS legislative liaison in December before the legislative session began and has declined any further meetings.

The final, and most important step, is: VOTE!

One of the biggest problems students face in working with lawmakers is the fact that so few students actually vote.

Western is probably the most respected institution in the eyes of legislators, but imagine how influential we’d be with a voting blocof 13,000 students in a district that casted 65,000 legislative votes in the 2008 election.

Erik Lowe is the Associated Students President.

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