A bipartisan bill moving through the Washington Legislature is trying to claw back scheduled cuts to financial aid for students attending the state’s private colleges.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. T’wina Nobles, D-Fircrest, would undo changes adopted last year that reduced state funding for financial aid awarded to students enrolled at private, nonprofit four-year institutions.
Beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, the maximum aid awarded annually to students at those schools will drop to just over $6,000, down from the more than $9,000 previously available. The shift is projected to affect more than 12,000 students statewide, according to state Legislature estimates. The cuts occurred alongside reductions to aid for about 3,000 students attending public universities during a tough budget reconciliation session last year.
The current bill would prevent those cuts to private college tuition aid from happening. It would also set the max aid amount to match the average state award for public universities.
Supporters of the bill, including a consortium of private colleges, argue that even with some schools often stepping in to fill gaps, the reduced awards still disproportionately affect low-income and first-generation students, many of whom chose smaller campuses because of location, academic fit or access to support services.
“This was money for low-income students,” Nobles, a graduate of the University of Puget Sound, said in an interview. She chose the school because, at the time, there were no public four-year options close to her home in the Tacoma area.
The bill passed out of the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, which Nobles chairs, last week and now heads to the Ways and Means Committee, where its future is uncertain amid continued budget constraints. Restoring the cuts would cost more than $33 million across two years.
Nobles proposes using funds from the state’s education trust account, which she says is currently being used to supplant other areas of the budget.
“We are not less deserving,” Nobles said during public testimony earlier this month. “We understand the budget is tight.”
College leaders echoed that sentiment, warning that the cuts hit students with the least financial flexibility. Allan Belton, president of Pacific Lutheran University, said the reductions fall hardest on students the state has pledged to support.
“These cuts hurt the most economically vulnerable students,” Belton said, noting that more than 550 PLU students are College Bound scholars and that roughly 75% are students of color.
Student testimony underscored those stakes. Maelyn Carlisle, a sophomore at Gonzaga University, said she would have had to leave school next year if the university had not stepped in to cover the difference created by the state cuts.
Carlisle, a first-generation college student, said the aid made Gonzaga “completely affordable” and allowed her to pursue a teaching career. She said the uncertainty surrounding state funding caused weeks of anxiety before the university committed to backfilling the lost aid.
Lauren Mendez, representing the Washington School Counselor Association, told lawmakers that restoring funding gives students more control over their educational paths.
“Students from working-class families are provided with more agency and opportunity to choose a postsecondary path,” Mendez said.
Opposition came largely from representatives of public universities, who argued the state should prioritize restoring funding to its own institutions. Samuel Ligon, a faculty legislative representative for Eastern Washington University, said he sympathized with students but questioned the timing.
“I understand why people want funding restored,” Ligon said. “Unfortunately there’s no bill seeking funding restored to the state’s own universities.”
Ligon also pointed out that public university tuition is capped by the state, while private colleges can set their own rates, arguing that directing additional aid toward private campuses in a constrained budget year sends the wrong signal.
Sen. Drew Hansen, a Democrat and vice chair of the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, voted against the bill in committee. He argued that lawmakers should first undo financial aid reductions affecting students statewide before restoring funding for a specific group.
“We should restore the cuts we made to financial aid for all families across the state before we start picking and choosing and giving increases just to some students and not others,” Hansen said in an emailed statement.
Nobles said the issue should not be framed as a choice between sectors.
“It’s a both-and situation,” she said during a hearing on the bill. “I am here for all students, regardless of where they go.”