Tech colleges face high demand, low funds for expensive classes

After a long vacation in Europe, Todd Fox returned to Seattle in the spring of 2001 to find demand for his technology skills had evaporated like a puddle on a desert highway. A car buff, he began studying at Lake Washington Technical College (LWTC) to be an auto mechanic.

Policy-makers have been begging community and technical colleges to give quick training to people like Fox to help stem unemployment by providing desperately needed workers in fields such as health care, auto repair and the building trades. But training students such as Fox requires highly skilled, expensive teachers, costly equipment and small classes. Auto tech, for instance, costs LWTC about $13,000 per academic year per student, though the state gives community and technical colleges only $4,565 per student, no matter what programs they offer.

For technical colleges across the state, the discrepancy is overwhelming and is forcing them to limit enrollment in the very programs the economy needs now, several college officials say. Some lawmakers are sympathetic, but given the state's budget deficit, extra funding isn't likely.

So how do the colleges survive? They can offset expensive programs such as auto tech and nursing by offering less-expensive classes that require only a professor and rows of desks, such as Psychology 101, cramming 250 students into an auditorium.

Or they can increase tuition and hold down enrollment in expensive programs.

For Bellingham Technical College President Gerald Pumphrey and his colleagues at many other such schools, the first option isn't tenable. Their purpose is to provide highly specialized training to workers updating or acquiring new skills, not to offer relatively less-expensive liberal-arts courses. Yet they're compensated the same as community colleges whose mission, which includes getting students into four-year universities, is different and often less expensive.

In recent years, the community colleges have also shifted resources toward expensive technical programs to meet the growing demand, said Mary Alice Grobins, director of financial services for the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges.

Students and the colleges shudder at the second option — increasing tuition and holding down enrollment. Gov. Gary Locke's proposed budget would allow the community and technical colleges to make up for their shortfall by increasing tuition 9 percent for each of the next two academic years. That would limit access to education and training for many working-class students and newly laid-off workers, Bellevue Community College President Jean Floten said.

And that could have damaging effects on the economy. According to a University of Washington study published in the fall, despite the state's high unemployment rate, certain industries, such as health care, desperately need qualified workers. Limiting access to technical education won't ease that shortage.

Lawmakers are taking notice. State Rep. Fred Jarrett, R-Mercer Island, a member of the House Higher Education Committee, wants to abolish the system of giving colleges a set amount of money for every full-time student and distinguish between more- and less-expensive programs. So rather than giving every community and technical college $4,565 per student, he argues the schools should get $13,000 for students such as Fox and less than $4,565 for students in less-expensive programs.

As Grobins noted, however, "If you re-divide the existing pie, you get less money for someone else. ... We're trying to enlarge the pie by making the Legislature understand that these programs are more expensive."

Given the more than $2 billion budget deficit, though, that's not likely.

In his State of the State address earlier this week, Locke called for a stable funding source for higher education, so that colleges don't get squeezed during recessions when they're often most in demand. That should be the priority, said Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the House Higher Education Committee, who described funding for higher education as a never-ending "roller coaster."

"In the good times, we've never funded higher education properly, and then when the bad times come, the demand is higher, but we never have the money," she said.

Enrollment at the state's community and technical colleges was up 5 percent last quarter over a year ago, with some seeing increases of as much as 20 percent.

More robust and consistent funding will come when the state can show taxpayers that providing technical training is more effective — but also more expensive — than ever, Jarrett argues. Changing the funding formula to acknowledge the higher costs of high-demand degrees is a start, he said.

If there's a poster boy for what the community and technical colleges are delivering to taxpayers, it's Fox. Already working part time as an auto mechanic, the 34-year-old will begin working full time upon graduation in March, earning between $14 and $16 an hour.

Eventually, he hopes to be one of the rare but not-unheard-of six-figure mechanics.

J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com.