One year after breaking enrollment records, community colleges are experiencing a significant drop.
Better job prospects – including recent hiring sprees at Boeing – and rising tuition are key factors in lower enrollments at community colleges statewide.
Among the area’s three institutions, Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood has dived by more than 1,000 students from last fall’s count, while Cascadia Community College in Bothell has 632 fewer students.
Everett Community College is the only exception, seeing its headcount rise modestly by 40 students. School leaders credit a popular nursing program and interest in online courses for bucking the trend.
The dip in local community college enrollment is a blip, according to projections that show the largest high-school graduating classes are yet to come – peaking in 2010.
“Really, one quarter won’t show the whole picture. We’re looking at the future and what we need to prepare for,” said Michele Graves, a spokeswoman for EdCC.
Community colleges anticipated some losses this fall with the improving economy.
“More laid-off employees are going back to work, like Boeing,” Graves said.
And the federal government reduced the amount of aid it gives businesses to send workers to community colleges for extra training, doling another blow, she added.
But higher tuition prices also are likely to blame.
Tuition increased for the typical full-time community college student taking 15 credits, from $714 to $771 a quarter – an 8 percent increase. That’s $110, or 17 percent, more than the cost two years ago.
“We may have reached the breaking point,” said Suzanne Ames, a spokeswoman for Cascadia Community College.
Meanwhile, students still are registering at Everett Community College.
“It’s a little bit perplexing,” said Darryl Dieter, director of institutional research, who surveyed other community colleges from Whatcom to Shoreline – all were down.
Fewer unemployed workers getting retraining might have helped rather than hurt that college, said Christine Kerlin, EvCC associate dean for admissions and registration. “What it really did is it freed up some classroom seats that I think some other students had been wanting and couldn’t get into.”
But the college also may be able to credit popular programs such as nursing and online courses. Nursing enrollment went up 16 percent to 176 full-time equivalent students, while enrollment in online courses rose 33 percent to 417 students.
Despite the losses, “the colleges still will be serving more students than the state is funding,” said Lorna Sutton, a spokeswoman for the Office of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.
The state is supposed to pay community colleges about $4,500 for each full-time equivalent student enrolled in community college. Statewide, there were 13,000 more students in community colleges than the state paid for last year.
Melissa Slager is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
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