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Bill would let cities and counties create local promise scholarship matches inside Opportunity Scholarship program
Summary
Second Substitute House Bill 15‑87 would allow local governments to create local promise scholarship programs under the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, with the state matching local pledges up to $250,000 per local partner per fiscal year.
Second Substitute House Bill 15‑87 would permit local governments to establish local promise scholarship programs within the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship (WSOS) matching framework, enabling local governments to pledge private contributions that the state would match (subject to program caps and appropriations).
Under the substitute described by committee staff, each participating local government partner’s pledged private funds would be eligible for a state match limited to $250,000 per fiscal year. Eligible students would be those who earned a high school diploma or equivalency in Washington and who attend a public two‑year institution, a professional technical certificate program, or degree program as approved by SBCTC; eligibility for support could not extend more than three years. WSOS would report annually on private contributions and state match amounts and the total number of students served; beginning in 2025 the Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) must report outcomes for WSOS recipients and graduates each year by November 1. Staff said two local government partners — Renton and Tukwila — submitted pledges by the February 1 deadline totaling $600,000 in state match across a two‑year period.
The fiscal note identified administrative costs to WSOS as indeterminate and dependent on the number of participating local partners. Staff told the committee the state match for WSOS is capped at $50 million annually by statute; the House and Senate budgets included maintenance level funding for the state match in the 2025‑27 biennium. Testimony from the Renton government representative supported the bill as an investment in higher education and workforce development, and a student advocate cautioned the committee to avoid imposing barriers to eligibility beyond the minimum qualifications for the postsecondary program being sought.
Committee staff noted that the substitute requires pledges to be submitted by February first in order to be eligible for the state match for the 2025‑27 biennium; the number of future local partners and the long‑term fiscal impact is unknown and dependent on appropriations and additional pledges.
