This year's legislative session yielded more bad news than good. Washington's current budget is running on the tax income collected at the height of the recession, and therefore lawmakers simply didn't have much money to work with.

However, amidst the prioritizing, debating and political jockeying policy makers seemed to lose sight of a fundamental element of Washington State government -- providing access to public education.

One new policy in particular may have potentially dealt a knockout blow in a fight middle and lower class Washingtonians have been losing for years. The Legislature's decision to give public colleges and universities in Washington four years of complete control over their tuition rates - a plan Governor Gregoire signed off on Monday -- means tuitions are likely to skyrocket as schools look to counter reduced funding from the state.

Many institutions are expected to increase tuition by double-digit percentages. This is especially concerning when considering that before this decision college tuition in Washington had already been allowed to increase to astronomical rates.

Colleen Philbrook, Career Counselor at Lincoln High School, explains that current tuition rates reflect a much higher percentage of the average annual wage than in decades past.

"I think it's really important to put it in perspective," says Philbrook. "A lot of people will say ‘I put myself through college in 1975 and it was pretty easy'." Philbrook explains, citing the National Average Wage Index and schoolreport.com, that in 1975 the private college tuition average was $2300 and public school average was $513. At that time public school tuition was 5.9 percent of the average annual wage and private school tuition was 27 percent of the average annual wage.

In 2009, even before major increases were scheduled to begin, public school tuition was up to 18 percent of the annual wage and private up to a staggering 67 percent.

"This perspective is really critical as we have this conversation," says Philbrook. "In 1975 I put myself through college. I graduated with my four-year degree with $5,000 in loans," shares Philbrook. "It was very doable."

Now, nearly 40 years later, "doable" isn't a word one would use to describe the possibility of middle and lower income students paying their way through college.

Philbrook says times are especially tough for students whose families are not in a position to assist them financially.

"These students are looking at $10,000 dollars (a year) in loans and that's after the Federal Pell Grant, the State Need Grant, the Supplemental Equal Opportunity Grant and any institutional awards," she explains. "The other thing that's very important to keep in perspective is that today a student going to a public university will usually take five years to graduate because schools are so overcrowded that access to classes in their fields gets more and more difficult.

"What that means is that students are looking at a minimum of $50,000 in loans to graduate from college with a degree."

The Washington State Constitution requires public education be provided by the state. Higher education has never been free, but for many decades tuition at public institutions was priced affordably for working class families and students without family support.

But between the state decreasing funding for higher education and public institutions continuously increasing tuitions, universal access to secondary education seems increasingly like a myth and anything but the status quo.