News
September 10, 2004
Contacts: Lorna Sutton, Director of Communications, SBCTC, 360-704-4310
Two-year colleges seek funding to expand enrollment by 10,000 full-time students
OLYMPIA – Funds to create 10,000 more full-time enrollment slots over the next two years and to provide salary increases for employees top the 2005-07 operating budget request proposed by Washington’s community and technical colleges.
The two-year college system is already serving about 10 percent more students than the state is funding, as the generation known as the baby boom echo has begun crowding into the state’s higher education classrooms. The requested enrollments would be used to serve new students, generated by the growing number of high school graduates in the state and an increasing percentage of high school graduates choosing to attend two-year colleges.
Members of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges are scheduled to discuss and approve the two-year colleges’ biennial operating budget proposal when they meet Tuesday (Sept. 14) in Vancouver, Washington.
The complete biennial operating budget request totals $1.3 billion in state general funds, representing an increase of $248 million over current funding.
In addition to $85 million for 10,000 new full-time enrollment slots and $115 million for a number of salary-related items, the request includes $10 million to support adult basic education and English as a second language courses and $7 million to expand a program that provides training for workers in partnership with employers.
The request for 10,000 new full-time enrollment slots is about one-third of the additional enrollments the community and technical college system projects it will need to serve by 2012.
“The demand for education and training at our community and technical colleges has never been greater,” said Earl Hale, the State Board’s executive director. “We’ve done an extensive analysis of the demand facing us and believe this request is an accurate reflection of what our state needs to fund in order to provide higher education for its citizens.”
In 2003-04, community and technical colleges served the equivalent of 137,538 full-time students in state-supported courses. That was about 10,850 more full-time students than the state funded them to serve. Since many students enroll part time, the number of individual students served in state-supported classes was about 313,300, while the total served in all types of workshops, programs and courses was more than 460,000.
The college system would reserve 10 percent of new enrollments for high-demand programs, such as health sciences, information technology, applied sciences and engineering.
The compensation requests include $48.5 million in cost-of-living increases, $33.3 million for recruitment and retention funding, $20 million to improve salaries of part-time faculty, $7.2 million for faculty increments, and $5.7 million to increase the number of full-time faculty.
“Quality faculty and staff are at the heart of providing quality education,” Hale said, “and that means providing fair compensation. We need to ensure that we are able to retain and attract a skilled, well-prepared workforce in the colleges to prepare students for the future.”
Increased funding for adult basic education and English as a second language courses would help offset the cost of these programs, which have traditionally been offered at no charge and are now being provided for a charge of $25 per quarter. The lack of tuition support has made it difficult for colleges to continue offering these courses; however, a sizeable majority of students enrolling are low income and can’t afford to pay full tuition.
The $7 million request to expand the Job Skills Program, which provides training for incumbent workers in partnership with business and industry, is submitted in collaboration with the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board as an economic development tool to encourage new businesses to locate in the state and existing businesses to stay and/or expand.
The program, which currently is funded at about $2.95 million, is designed to train new employees for plant openings or expansions, retrain current employees learning new technologies, or upgrade the skills of current employees for promotional opportunities. Employers contract with colleges to design customized programs and must provide at least half of the cost of training. Every state has some kind of publicly funded incumbent worker training program, but Washington’s is one of the smallest in the country.
The 2005-07 operating budget request also includes $10.3 million to maintain and operate buildings and a number of technical adjustments, such as funding to cover increased lease costs.
The State Board will also approve their 2005 meeting schedule and a $250,000 contract with the Washington State Patrol to develop a Homeland Security Institute.
The meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday in Gaiser Hall at Clark College, 1800 East McLoughlin Blvd., Vancouver.
It follows a retreat for board members on Monday (Sept. 13) from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay and Tuesday (Sept. 14) from 8 to 10:15 a.m. at Clark College.
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The meeting agenda and background materials are posted on the State Board Web site at: http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/general/a_board/
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