What is the Student Debt Reduction Working Group?
The Student Debt Reduction Working Group is a committee of around 10 students formed by ASUW in fall 2013 to address the high cost of college and rising student debt through creative policy options and financial aid literacy campaigns.

The work of the Student Debt Reduction Working Group has been inspired by the exponentially rising costs of college. In the past 10 years, resident undergraduate tuition at the University of Washington has risen from $5,286 in the 2004-2005 academic year to its current rate of $12,395. That’s an increase of 134%. In approximately that same time period, state support for the University has decreased by over 50%. As a public institution, the University of Washington is often at the mercy of the state legislature, and it is hard to predict whether funding will be stable year to year. In times of economic downturn, the state has shown a trend of disinvesting in higher education as money gets tighter.

The graph below shows the state’s investment in higher education over the past 13 years. The dramatic state disinvestment between 2009-2013 is clear; it is not a coincidence that UW students experienced significant tuition increases during that time. Recently, however, the trend has begun to reverse as funding is restored to higher education, reflected in the tuition freeze that has been in place since 2013.

State Investment in Higher Education. Source: Economic Opportunity Institute

Tuition only comprises a part of the total cost of education — we all also have to pay for housing, textbooks, food, transportation, etc. in order to attend UW. These costs have also been rising, adding to the burden on students and adding to the debt they are pressured to carry. The average debt burden of a student at UW has increased by 17% since 2008.