Higher education in Washington...

takes a big hit in the state Senate budget. Relevant parts:

• no state cost of living increases over the next two years for state workers, college staffers or teachers, and no additional money for home-care and child care workers

• $485 million less for the state’s colleges

• tuition increases of 7 percent a year at four-year colleges and 5 percent at community and technical colleges

• cutting room for more than 3,000 expected students from the state’s colleges

We'll have to see what EWU's share of the reduction will be, and how the EWU administration will apportion those cuts internally. We already know the athletics program will be spared.