Connelly: State approach to higher ed just not that smart

Gov. Chris Gregoire talked last week to Seattle Pacific University's annual business breakfast. She told a bootstraps story, of growing up in a single-parent household with a waitress mother who urged her to attend the UW and was "overwhelmed" seeing her daughter graduate from law school.

"We cannot compromise education along the way," Gregoire said, adding a moment later: "We need to make sure college is available to all our students."

But access to higher education is increasingly being cut off by deep funding cuts under Gregoire's watch.