Wash. community colleges cut budgets, hike tuition.

Wash. community colleges cut budgets, hike tuition. SEATTLE Seattle(sēăt`əl), city (1990 pop. 516,259), seat of King co., W Wash., built on seven hills, between Elliott Bay of Puget Sound and Lake Washington; inc. 1869. (AP) -- Washington's 34 community and l technicalcolleges decided to raise tuition For tuition fees in the United Kingdom, see .Tuition means instruction, teaching or a fee charged for educational instruction especially at a formal institution of learning or by a private tutor usually in the form of one-to-one tuition. by 7 percent to help them deal withthe most significant budget cuts they've seen in more than adecade. The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges voted to cutallocations to the colleges by a net 8.6 percent after the tuitionincrease is factored in, board President Charlie Earl said. The colleges are talking about laying off administrative staff,cutting the number of classes they offer and keeping a tight lid onspending that was already cut by about 4.3 percent during the currentschool year. Earl said cutting academics will be the last thing on the list. The colleges will maintain their open-door enrollment policies butwill have to cut classes and students will feel that impact. "Eventually students won't be able to get an acceptableschedule for their educational goals. That's how it getslimited," Earl said. "At some point the realities of thefiscal conditions of the state run counter to the aspirations aspirationsnpl → aspiraciones fpl(= ambition); ambici��n faspirationsnpl (= hopes, ambition) → aspirations fplof thepeople." The budget cut is the worst the colleges have seen in a long time. "We have experienced it before, but not anywhere near thislevel," Earl said, adding that the last time the colleges saw theirbudgets go down significantly was at the beginning of the decade butthose cuts were much smaller. College officials also acknowledged the efforts the Legislaturemade to balance the state's priorities and Earl said the collegesfelt lawmakers heard them and worked hard for their students. In the 2009 academic year, the colleges served about 158,000students, about 8,000 more than the state budgeted. Earl said he expectsthe number of students the colleges can serve will drop by thousands inthe next academic year, but he could not predict an exact number. College officials worry that these budget cuts will hurt theirability to meet the needs of people who have lost their jobs because ofthe economic downturn DownturnThe transition point between a rising, expanding economy to a falling, contracting one.downturnA decline in security prices or economic activity following a period of rising or stable prices or activity. , he said.