SEATTLE (AP) — The Legislature last month sliced $84 million from the community- and technical-college budgets for the next biennium, while authorizing 12 percent-a-year tuition increases for the next two years.
The Seattle Times reports that even before the cut, classes at many of the state’s two-year schools had waitlists. Now, as the schools look for ways to trim further, it’s becoming likely that those waiting lists will grow still longer. And some programs will be phased out altogether.
Students and staff expect those cuts will hit the very classes that lead to jobs.
Seattle Central Community College has proposed eliminating nine programs, including some that are the only programs of their kind in the state. And there’s demand in the business world for the students who finish some of these programs.
