SEATTLE—Washington kicked off the year with an effort to make higher education more affordable in a state that is already among the most generous with financial aid.
Lawmakers passed two bills in March—one giving students more time to use state aid for college and another making recipients of public assistance automatically eligible for the awards. And they are just the latest in a five-year push to get more Washingtonians enrolled in postsecondary education and training.
The Big Idea: It’s part of a broader push in many states to make college, or at least two years of it, free or nearly free—moves are driven by changing demographics and persistent workforce shortages. Results have been mixed thus far.
Washington’s revamped aid program, first passed in 2019, was uniquely driven by major employers, including Microsoft, that worried that too few of the state’s residents were prepared for and getting jobs in high-demand fields like tech. It includes a major focus on work-based learning, and and is paid for by a business tax of those same large companies.
Here too, the results have been mixed. The state hasn’t seen a rush of students, though demand was certainly complicated by the pandemic and now the federal government’s bungling of the roll out of the new FAFSA for applying for aid.
But other barriers, like insufficient marketing and students’ needing to work, have played a major role too, says Brian Jeffries, policy director at Partnership for Learning, the education foundation of the Washington Roundtable of major employers. That’s the next phase of the work in the state, he says.
“We know our students want good jobs, and we know that they know that they need the right credentials to get access to those great jobs,” he says. “So we need to eliminate as many barriers as possible for all of our students, but especially those who have great economic need.”
Connect Education to Careers
Programs that embed work in education are designed to break down some of those barriers. They’ve been a part of the state’s strategy, through Career Connect Washington, from Day One of the free college rollout. And participation is starting to hit a critical threshold, leaders say.
Career Connect Washington (CCW) creates work-based learning models and academic programs for young Washingtonians to explore careers and develop skills while earning money or college level credit.
The initiative brings together employers and educators by providing the connective infrastructure, funding, and support. Maud Daudon, executive leader of CCW, says the pathways in the CCW initiative are designed to give on-the-job work experiences, and are skills and competencies driven. They’re also designed to connect young people with the opportunities they need to get the degrees, credentials, or certifications that are now required for 70% of jobs.
Not only do these pathways elevate the networks of young adults, Daudon says, they also get employers deeply invested in the success of their students.
CCW programs include recognized pre-apprenticeships and registered apprenticeships. Grant County—home to the Grand Coulee Dam and flight testing sites for Boeing and other aerospace companies—is training students for roles in hospitality, computer systems administration, and aerospace. And in King County, home to Seattle and Tacoma, students in CCW can explore and prepare for careers in maritime trades like boat building, construction, and tech.
- Almost 16K students were enrolled in Career Launch programs from July 2022 to June 2023—a growth rate of around 35% over the four years since its inception.
- From July 2019 to June 2023 there were just shy of 7K Career Launch completions by students enrolled before age 30.
Daudon says that access is at the core of what they do.
“If we just do this for the usual suspect kids that already are getting a credential or degree, we’re not doing a darn thing,” she says. “We’ve got to really make sure we are accessing the entire spectrum of kids—those that are successful academically, but those that are struggling academically.”
The state and the Washington Roundtable have a goal of 70% of students completing a college credential by age 26. Daudon is confident the state can reach its credential goals, in part because demand for CCW’s programs is strong from students, families, employers, teachers, and counselors, and the initiative already has the infrastructure established to scale.
One of CCW’s strengths in access is its regional networks that tap into the specific sub-economies of the state to open pathways for local students, Daudon says. She says the input from regional offices means CCW isn’t duplicating its efforts, but learning from them on what a community wants and needs. The regional networks “matchmake” with educational service districts and local employers—who otherwise wouldn’t know who to turn to.
“The whole system we are trying to build is very performance driven,” Daudon says.
Daudon says that their initiatives across the state crosses all sectors of industry and employs all the players, relying on community-based engagement to reach harder-to-reach demographic groups.
“We’ve learned that education is probably better by being as connected as possible to community,” Daudon says. “We’ve had a tendency to think education and educators should do all these things. Why not bring community a little closer in and partner with them to help support them?”
While it’s still considered early days for CCW to see a major impact, Daudon says she’s seen how working with young people early on in their journey can broaden their educational experience, plug them in to something they care about, and help them make money earlier.
It’s all about giving them agency and choice.
The Grant Money Is There—Why Aren’t the Students?
Nevertheless, launching a state aid initiative right before a global pandemic certainly hasn’t helped it thrive. Even as college enrollment has started to recover post pandemic, there hasn’t been a parallel uptick in state grant applications, Jeffries says. One big hurdle they’re running into now is making sure students are aware of what is available to them and how it could make their post-high school pathway smoother.
For context, Washington is one of the lowest performing states for students who fill out the FAFSA application for federal student aid, something researchers have many theories about but few solid reasons to explain.
From 2020-2021 to 2022-2023, financial aid application rates were up from students from low-income families, according to Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC). WSAC also found that receiving financial aid increased postsecondary enrollment for both four-year and two-year institutions.
- In 2019-2020, more than 77K students received the state need grant—whereas in 2022-2023, almost 92K students and apprentices received the WA Grant.
Still, Michael P. Meotti, the executive director of the Washington Student Achievement Council, says that the assumption that if you pay for something students will participate in droves has turned out to be incorrect. Overall, undergraduate enrollment in the state was down 1.3% this fall, following years of much steeper declines. Meotti says that’s because there is more to this equation than paying a tuition bill.
A student’s environment—school, teachers, family, part-time job—play a big role in shaping the student’s thought processes of value around postsecondary education, he says. Making a message come alive for students, and having this message come from a trusted source, is essential in improving this pipeline.
Meotti says that while they are leveraging advertising, social media, and a chat bot tool, what makes a student embrace in-state education pathways are the change agents on the ground. It’s more than just an information gap, he says.
The state is finding it needs to double down on communicating about the available grants, and providing guidance at the high school level for how to take advantage of the grants. WSAC has $1M for last fiscal year and this fiscal year to market the College Grant to students. The mess of Better FAFSA has been a complication that risks slowing down students’ interest in applying for any aid.
Looking Ahead
The involvement of local industry—and the focus on career exploration and workforce development—has been key to support for expanded student aid in Washington, key players say. They attribute the unusual breadth and depth of these coalitions as part of why it’s been successful.
However, now that the hurdles of Covid have been mostly cleared, the state will have to work to make students aware of the resources and programs available to them.
Parting Thought: Jeffries says that researchers know the biggest barrier to education and training is cost, and students “tell” policy makers via applications and enrollment what’s working for them. Because of this, Jeffries acknowledges the state still has a long way to go to achieve their vision.
He says going forward the state will need to keep an eye on “the third leg of the stool”—college and career preparedness in high school.
