Seattle Schools Community Forum

Remember how Senator Rodney Tom was telling everyone who would listen what a bad idea it was for the state to continue the GET program (buying prepaid units of college tuition)?   He said, "We don't need to be in that business."   And the Legislature was thinking of getting rid of it despite its popularity? As Goldy at The Stranger Slog says, So had we shut down GET last session, we would have shut it down for absolutely nothing. The Times is reporting that it's back on " good financial footing."  It was given an "A" rating for soundness from the state actuary and the committee that oversees GET.   The actuary says that "if all assumptions are realized and the program remains open " then GET will be fully funded by 2018." The reasoning for this change is that the Legislature voted to freeze tuition at our state's colleges and universities and an improving stock market.  This makes sense because GET is not a low-cost way...

David Goldstein over at The Stranger Slog lays out the case for the GET (Guaranteed Education Tuition) program.  The legislators who are talking it down are - no surprise - some of very legislators who have turned on their own party, Rodney Tom and Steve Litzow along with Ross Hunter.  (And, as Goldy points out, some live in some of the most expensive areas of Washington State.)  GET is Washington's prepaid tuition program, a variant of the federally sanctioned tax-free "529 plans." Families buy their children college credits at today's prices, plus a (sometimes hefty) premium, and then cash out in the future, tax free, at the value of the tuition and fees at Washington's most expensive university. One hundred GET units equals a full year of tuition and fees, and the current $172 unit price represents a 39 percent markup over the University of Washington's $12,401 tuition and fees for the 2012-13 academic year. Tuition can't (and won't) kee...