Nowhere were last year's budget cuts to higher education felt more deeply than at our state's 34 community and technical colleges, or CTCs. Enrollment in Washington's two-year colleges increased by nearly 16 percent last fall, while funding was cut over 10 percent. Now, Governor Gregoire has proposed cutting an additional $43.5 million.
How will the state's 34 community and technical colleges continue to educate more and more students with less and less support? The short answer is that they won't be able to.
Nearly 267,000 students enrolled in community and technical colleges in fall 2009. What did they find when they arrived on campus?
First, fewer employees are working at the state's CTCs this year than last. Staff cuts on my campus have affected everything from student testing to enrollment services, from computer labs to library staffing. Students notice these cuts when they need to register, get help filing financial aid forms, use tutoring services or submit graduation paperwork.
Second, the enrollment surge coupled with budget cuts means average class size has gone up dramatically. All three of my U.S. History courses were fully enrolled or overloaded this fall, with students on wait lists who did not get into my classes. Normally, colleges would open additional sections of popular courses like English 101 and Psychology 100. But this year, there is less money to hire adjunct instructors, even as tenure-track positions remain vacant and tenured professors face lay-offs.
While the state has not directly cut student enrollment slots at two-year colleges, neither has it increased the number of those slots to account for the increasing numbers of students who have actually registered. Because of the funding cuts, there simply are not enough course spots available for all CTC students to register for the courses they need. With further budget cuts next year this problem will get worse.
After a while, doing more with less is no longer possible.
Just as college employees have been asked to do more with less, students have been asked to pay more for less. Tuition and fees at community colleges have gone up this year and will rise again next year for a total tuition increase of slightly more than 14 percent.
A 14 percent tuition hike, while less than the 30 percent tuition increase at some state universities, is still a significant financial burden to many community college students. A profile of the students enrolled in CTCs last fall shows why: 31 percent are parents, most of them parents of young children; 47 percent work full or part time, while 26 percent are unemployed; the median age of CTC students is 26, which means most of them do not get financial support from their parents; 57 percent are female; and 36 percent are students of color.
The most vulnerable students, in my experience, are parents who struggle to stay in school while they work enough hours to support themselves and their children. Some parents face even greater challenges. One of my students this quarter is a single mother who lives in a homeless shelter with her school-aged daughter. She tells me that the evening curfew and other rules at the shelter sometimes make it difficult for her to keep up with her studies, but that she will do her best. Another student explained that he is living in his car and that he is so low on funds that even though the quarter is nearly a third over, he hasn't yet purchased most of his books. Was there anything I could do to help him, he asked?
I see students like these two leave school every quarter, and I wonder when and how they will be able to return.
A big part of the gratification of teaching at a community and technical college comes from the opportunity I have to work with diverse students and to know that I make a positive difference in their lives. State budget cuts jeopardize my ability to make that difference.
But my loss when students cannot stay in school is nothing compared with their loss. It is heartbreaking to watch opportunities that for decades have been open to Washington's CTC students disappear. Community colleges were founded to provide access to higher education for all citizens. When Washington politicians renege on the promise of open access for all, they diminish our commitment to ourselves, to our fellow citizens, and to the future of our state.