Yesterday, Goldy posted that Washington has the second-worst funded public college system in the US, and that Bill Lyne of the United Faculty of Washington State has said: “Everybody knows we’re killing our colleges, nobody seems to be willing or able to do anything about it.”
There is one proposed solution on the table, but it’s full of thorns—a bill to raise the tuition of international students by 20 percent. That’s a chunk of change. House Democrats such as Rodney Tom (a co-sponsor of the bill) support the idea as a way to raise $59.2 million in the next two years.
But state colleges and community colleges, some of the most popular schools for international students in the country, are saying (not without reason) that these students can go anywhere in the world and that the tax might price Washington schools out of the shiny-US-diploma market. The schools also note that money from the international-student tax would go directly into the general fund—so the schools get more expensive, have to work harder to attract international students, and the state gets all the money.
From Inside Higher Ed:
“Right now, international students actually subsidize Washington State residents,” said Margaret Shepherd, UW’s director of state relations. “We have used the revenue generated from both nonresident and international tuition to make up for the loss of state support or to help enhance the educational experience for all of our students, and a primary concern with this proposal is that the revenue that’s generated from international students actually goes to subsidize other institutions and other higher education programs from which they don’t receive a benefit.”
Green River Community College, Seattle Central Community College, Edmonds Community College, and Bellevue College (formerly known as Bellevue Community College) are the 10th, 12th, 14th, and 20th most popular destinations in the US for international students seeking associate’s degrees. (North Seattle and Shoreline also make the top 40 list.)
But schools’ popularity with international students is controversial all on its own.
Some people have complained that the community colleges have unduly low English proficiency requirements for international students. (Seattle Central Community College requires a minimum IELTS test score of 5.5, which the folks at IELTS describe as: “Modest user, partial command of the language, coping with overall meaning in most situations, though is likely to make many mistakes. Should be able to handle basic communication in own field.” Someone familiar with the situation at SCCC more bluntly called the 5.5 score “survival English.”)
So does the current presence of international students, under the current regulations, “help enhance the educational experience for all of our students”? Hard to tell. Are some schools valuing international students’ money more than what actually happens in the classroom? Also hard to tell. And would hiking up tuition by 20 percent also “help enhance the educational experience for all of our students”?
Extremely hard to tell. This one’s a toughie.
