Oregon Public Broadcasting

Washington state’s community and technical college system may declare a “financial emergency.” A decision is expected Thursday.

It would allow the college presidents to fast-track lay-offs of full-time and even tenured faculty. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

Washington’s two-year colleges were spared the worst of the higher ed cuts this year.

Even so, when you factor in inflation, the 34-college system is facing a nearly 4-percent reduction over the next two years.

Because faculty salaries account more than 80-percent of costs, Washington’s Community and Technical College Board is considering something that hasn’t been done since the early 1980s – declaring a state of emergency.

The Board’s John Boesenberg says an emergency declaration would allow college presidents to expedite lay-offs.

John Boesenberg: “It’s not a tool anyone likes to use or wants to use, we don’t want to lay-off full-time faculty, we don’t want to lay-off part-time faculty.”

Not surprisingly the unions representing community and technical college faculty are howling.

The Washington chapter of the American Federation of Teachers calls the emergency declaration a “blunt object.”

Online:

State Board for Community and Technical Colleges Agenda