At the risk of flogging my own Slog posts, I'd just like to emphasize the obvious and utter financial absurdity of Senate "Majority" Leader Rodney Tom's campaign to close the GET program, Washington's prepaid tuition plan. From the Seattle Times editorial:

State lawmakers should be seriously concerned about a projected $631 million future shortfall in GET. The program’s $2.1 billion fund was set up to be self-supporting, as long as new investors continue to enroll.

[...] Closing GET to new enrollees would cause a $1.7 billion hit to the state treasury over an 11-year period. That’s because without new investors GET’s current fund balance is expected to be depleted by 2025. The state would then have to step in financially.

For the sake of argument, let's just assume that the editors' numbers are correct. If GET is facing a projected $631 million future shortfall, where's the sense in paying $1.7 billion to shut it down? That would just be stupid. Worst comes to worst, you'd think we'd be better off spending $631 million to make college more affordable than spending $1.7 billion making it less.

I mean, GET stabilizes once tuition stabilizes, and we've already been through the worst of the double-digit tuition hikes, right? Right?!