State G.E.Ts program will be up on the chopping block this election session. I personal used this program to help pay for my college so I'm a little bias. But i feel that its one of the few programs that helped the middle class go to higher education. The G.E.Ts program from those that don't know is the Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) Program. How it works is .....if you buy a unit of G.E.T (like a stock) at the current price of education. (example one unit of GET might be 1/25 of a over all semesters cost at the UW) Then whenever the price of education goes up so does the value of the GET. You have to buy the GET quite a distance out in advance, but the idea is this program helps people plan for college.
Like most things with the government, the devil is in the details. The GET program like most government "investing" programs have a habit of magically losing their stored money. And the GET program has run into some trouble. With the increase in tuition costs the value of the units of GETs are increase more so then the government can afford. ( maybe the government should get into investing). So the State is looking at cuts and adjusting the program.
"Lawmakers are concerned that GET, already underfunded, could become a liability if college-tuition costs outpace the state's ability to make money on its GET investments. The state takes GET purchases and invests the money, much as it does with a pension fund."(Seattle Times)
This program was great for me, but should it be a core function of our state government? Don't think so.... I just hope they don't shaft those already on the program( like me).
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