Washington state's broken universities funding model

This can’t go on. That is our sentiment after adopting another annual budget for the University of Washington that includes a 16% tuition increase for resident undergraduates. This is the fourth year in a row our students have seen a double-digit tuition increase, write two members of the university’s board of regents, Kristianne Blake and Craig W Cole, for Seattle Times.

As stewards of our state's largest institution of higher education, we believe these increases were absolutely necessary to maintain the quality of education that has served the citizens of this state so well for 150 years. But the increases do not address the fundamental problems facing public higher education in Washington.

The next time anyone questions why public university tuition is rising faster than inflation, remember this: Twenty years ago, the state government paid 80% of the cost of a student's education and a student paid 20%. Today, the state pays 30% of the cost, and the student pays 70%. The state has systematically disinvested in our children's future, and we view this trend with disappointment and alarm.
Full report on the Seattle Times site