Tuition in Washington just got a bit more affordable. It’s gone from ludicrously expensive to just ridiculous.

After five years of seeing college costs rise 34 percent across the board, legislators decided they’d take a bold step in this year’s 2015-2017 biennial budget and actually reduce tuition rates at four-year colleges and universities along with slight reductions for trade/vocational schools with their not-quite-finished budget last week.

It’s a 20-percent cost cut for resident undergraduate students at the University of Washington and Washington State University, a 15-percent cut for other four-year schools (like Western Washington University, the best school in the state or perhaps the world … ) and a 5-percent cut at technical and community colleges, the first of its kind in the nation.

Tuition at UW goes from $10,740 each year (current) to $9,183 in 2016-2017 and at WSU from $10,336 to $8,837 in the same time frame, while two-year schools see tuition drop from 3,217 to $3,056.

Schools across Washington saw plenty of good news in the latest attempt by legislators, including $1.3 billion more in school spending and raises to teacher pay, and lawmakers hope this budget fulfills the Supreme Court’s McCleary ruling to fully fund education.

But Randy Dorn, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, is urging the state Supreme Court to reject the Legislature’s $38.2 billion budget deal, calling it “unconstitutional.”

Dorn said, “Rather than address the unconstitutional use of levies to fund our schools, their budget actually increases reliance on levies. The budget includes a long overdue cost-of-living adjustment for teachers and other staff, but only for personnel funded by the state. School districts will be forced to use levy dollars to provide similar increases to staff funded with local funds … Moreover, the Legislature has failed to comply with the order from the Supreme Court to produce a complete plan laying out a pathway to full funding of basic education by 2018. Three years after the Court ruled in McCleary v. Washington, the State of Washington still has no plan to fully fund our schools and end the inequity produced by reliance on local funding.”

Further, lawmakers still haven’t found a way to pay for Initiative 1351, a measure that lowers class size. State senators rejected a plan that would delay the class size maximums for four years — and the associated costs of an influx of teachers and creating of classroom space — so now the budget has an unbalanced budget to the tune of $2 billion.

Which means their work in Olympia, impressive as it has been so far, isn’t done. The Legislature who passed the first gas tax hike in a decade — and largest (11.9 cents per gallon) rise in the state’s history — is going to need a little more gas in the tank to make it to the finish line.

Ready, set … retire

According to a reputable source — OK, it’s SmartAsset, a financial tech company that according to the Huffington Post “uses data to provide answers to big financial decisions concerning home-buying, retirement planning and life insurance needs” — Clallam County and Jefferson County are two of the top counties in Washington in terms of “Retirement Readiness.”

Probably no shock to the many of you here who already are retired.

According to SmartAsset, using a formula involving median household wealth, Social Security income and cost of living statistics, Jefferson ranks No. 3 and Clallam No. 5 in the top counties ready to meet retirement goals on time.

Top of the list is Lincoln County (Eastern Washington), followed by San Juan, Jefferson, Skamania and Clallam.

The worst in Washington? Whitman County, followed by Yakima and Grant. Despite Lincoln’s status, eastern and central Washington don’t fare particularly well on the list, with the top (or bottom) seven counties. Spokane (No. 24) and King (No. 28) counties rank in the back of the pack, for those interested.

Check out more at smartasset.com/retirement/401k-calculator#wa.

Thanks, Canada

First the sewage, now the smog. A thick blanket of Canadian smoke and ash ignored all international border protocols this weekend as several fires burning in British Columbia sent a haze to the Olympic Peninsula last week.

A persistent Paradise Fire on the west side of Olympic National Park continues to burn well into the summer, but park officials said this weekend — and subsequent weather maps show — that the blame lay with Canada.

While the haze may seem relatively benign, it does create a dangerous situation: How can one tell if a new fire in one’s neighborhood has started, or whether it’s just a Canadian import? Sam Phillips, fire chief with Clallam County Fire District 2 and president of the Clallam County Fire Chiefs Association, advises residents to do two things: 1) provide an exact address or GPS coordinate of their sighting of the smoke, and 2) advise the call-takers at 9-1-1 if they can see a column of smoke or not and if they do, whether it is getting larger and identify the color. Fires that are growing typically have dark brown or black smoke, Phillips says, and a column of smoke typically indicates the location on the ground nearby the caller’s location.

Got a question about drifting smoke or air health? Call the Olympic Regional Clean Air Agency at 539-7610 or 800-422-5623.

Take away their phones? Really?

According to a recent study by the London School of Economics, schools that ban students from carrying phones see a marked improvement in test scores.

“We found the impact of banning phones for these students equivalent to an additional hour a week in school, or to increasing the school year by five days,” researchers Richard Murphy and Louis-Philippe Beland told CNN recently.

Might be a good time to consider a ban in Washington schools, considering this:

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction recently gave the public a “sneak peek” into statewide results of Smarter Balanced tests, the tests that measure student learning of the new state learning standards in English language arts and mathematics. Adopted by Washington in 2011, Smarter Balance tests are designed to “ensure all students who graduate from a Washington high school have the critical-thinking skills needed for careers and college,” OSPI officials said last week.

Students in our state who took the Smarter Balanced tests are generally scoring higher than last year’s field tests indicated they would, according to preliminary results. Looking at how many students scored a Level 3 or Level 4 (passing the test), between 53-62 percent of students in grades 3-high school scored a 3 or 4 on the Smarter Balance language Arts test (14-21 percent higher that field tests) and 46-57 percent in grades 3-8 scored a 3 or 4 on mathematics (15-18 percent higher than field tests. One ugly spot in initial test scores was high school mathematics: just 29 percent scored a 3 or 4, a good 4 percent lower than last year’s field test.

Students throughout the state took the Smarter Balanced assessments for the first time this spring.

Also, it’s a way from keeping the robots from taking over (via our phones).

Dog days of summer …

I got an odd e-mail in my inbox recently, this one from Ann Murray. No, not the Canadian songstress of yore (she’s “Anne”). This, a PR rep from Milk-Bone … I kid you not.

“Summer is the top season for travel — but increasingly, Americans are choosing to hit the open road rather than brave airport delays … In the spirit of the great American road trip, Milk-Bone teamed up with other products in the Big Heart Pet Brands family to present the ‘Milk-Bone Doggy Road Trip Ranking’ — your guide to the top destinations to treat the whole family … including Fido.”

By cross referencing online review sites with data on dog-friendly restaurants and hotels, the folks at Milk-Bone created their list. My interest was mildly piqued.

I found two Washington locations on the Milk-Bone Doggy Road Trip Ranking. At No. 6, oddly enough, Pike Place Market.

Even stranger was the second entry, coming in at No. 27 with 25 Milk-Bone biscuits: Olympic National Park.

Yes. ONP. A national park. One that doesn’t allow dogs to most parts of the park is apparently one of the nation’s top-50 dog-friendly road trip destinations.

Ahem. This, folks, is what happens when the robots take over.

And if you’re not convinced …

According to the car manufacturer Volkswagen, a robot killed a contractor at one of the company’s production plants in Germany on June 29 at the plant in Baunatal, about 60 miles north of Frankfurt. The 22-year-old was part of a team that was setting up the stationary robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate, a company spokesman said.

Seriously. The robots are taking over.

Reach editor Michael Dashiell at editor@sequimgazette.com.