Enrollment Drops At Community Colleges and Tech Schools

This from Mark Hebert at WHAS TV:

Versailles, Ky. (Sept. 26, 2008) - Fall enrollment was a major topic of discussion during today's Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) Board of Regents meeting. For the first time in the organization's 10-year history, enrollment did not increase during the fall semester with an estimated 92,175 students compared with 92,828 in 2007.

"This slight drop in enrollment is a direct result of a decline in state appropriations and the Council on Postsecondary Education's decision not to approve our recommended tuition increase," said KCTCS Board of Regents Chair Richard A. Bean. "We can no longer continue to do what was mandated to us in the 1997 Postsecondary Education Improvement Act without appropriate levels of support."

Due to a $13.5 million reduction in state appropriations, KCTCS began the 2008-09 academic year with 240 fewer faculty and staff. KCTCS colleges have absorbed the budget cuts by eliminating academic programs and reducing the number of courses and services offered to students. Specific actions include:

· Elimination of full academic programs on one or more campuses of 10 colleges;
· Enrollment caps in one or more programs at 12 colleges;
· Fewer courses or fewer course sections offered by 14 colleges;
· Raising the minimum number of students required for a class to be offered at 15 colleges;
· Increasing class sizes at nine colleges;
· Reduction in services to students and businesses at 15 colleges;
· Closure of a campus at Gateway Community and Technical College;
· Capping of enrollment at Jefferson Community and Technical College's downtown campus;
· Discontinuation of class offerings at Wayne County High School by Somerset Community College; and

Elimination of weekend operations of the library at Owensboro Community and
Technical College....

But H-L isn't buying it.

KCTCS Threatens to Keep New Buildings Closed

This from PolWatchers:

... "The KCTCS Board of Regents will not approve the opening of any of these new buildings without the necessary operating funds," said Richard Bean of Louisville, chairman of the KCTCS Board of Regents.

"Any new building in the state, if you aren't prepared to open it, you shouldn't build it," Bean said. "It's like building a house, and then you're not able to pay the light bill." ...

...Their threats provoked a caustic response from State Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, chairman of the House budget committee. He was architect of the proposed state budget that the House approved last week, without including the 12 percent cut Gov. Steve Beshear had proposed for the state universities and community colleges.

"I'm not in the mood to hear whining from higher education about the budget," said Moberly ...

..."We've gone to great lengths to restore higher education" to its current funding level, he said, while some other parts of state government, such as the judiciary, still face budget woes...

'Bomb' dropped on higher education

This from the Herald-Leader:

..."The 2020 goals have just become 2028 goals," [Michael] McCall, [president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System] told the House Budget Review Subcommittee.

In 1997, the legislature set such goals as doubling the state's number of bachelor's degree holders to 800,000 and making the University of Kentucky a Top 20 public research university. The reforms mandated these initiatives to lift Kentucky's standard of living to the national average.

However, Gov. Steve Beshear has called for a 12 percent cut to help deal with a projected $590 million shortfall over the next biennium.

McCall said KCTCS would lose $33.5 million from a 12 percent cut. If KCTCS relied solely on tuition to offset the reduction, students' cost would go up 27 percent.

A huge increase like that would contradict the KCTCS goal of providing an affordable, easily accessible education, he said.

KCTCS would face its most dramatic setback if its next two-year state appropriation does not include $10 million in operating funds it needs to open 14 buildings statewide in 2008.
Without the $10 million, he said, "the only funds to be spent will be for chains and locks, as the Board of Regents has directed us not to open these buildings, which cost the commonwealth $248 million," McCall said....