RTC tuition to go up 12 percent; child center to close because of budget cuts

Published 9:40 am Thursday, August 4, 2011

The first casualties of state budget cuts are in at Renton Technical College: the childcare center and student tuition.

As of Aug. 31, the RTC Childcare Center will no longer providing services for students, faculty, staff and Head Start families. And, the college’s Board of Trustees is expected to approve the college budget for 2011-12 at its meeting Tuesday, which includes a 12 percent tuition increase.

During the course of four years, the college has seen a decrease of more than $5.1 million in its state allocation. RTC’s budget for fiscal year 2010-11 that ended June 30 was $33.8 million and of that, $16.9 million was its allocation from the state.

“Unfortunately, due to the severe budget cuts the college has sustained over the past several years, we can no longer continue to subsidize the cost of operating the childcare center,” said Steve Hanson, RTC president in a release.

The college had been supporting the childcare center with an annual subsidy that averaged more than $105,000 per year during the past five years.

Thirteen full-time staff members, eight part-time staff, mostly from community programs and 70 children will be impacted by the closure. Twenty-four of those children are enrolled in Head Start, the program that promotes early learning.

“This has been an important part of our campus and our life,” said Susanna Williams, college relations and foundation director. “It serves a very important role for many of our students. We have a number of Head Start kids there; this is something we feel very strongly about.”

The college did everything it could to try and keep the center open, Williams said, but it wasn’t possible.

The closure also eliminates on-campus student practicum opportunities for early childhood education students at the school.

RTC trains more than 300 qualified childcare providers, teacher aides and classroom assistants each year.

The tuition increase doesn’t come close to covering the cuts that were made by the state Legislature this past session, Williams said.

Tuition will go from $1,131.90 for 15 credits in fall 2010 to $1,267.70 for 15 credits in fall 2011. That amounts to about a $400 increase for full-time students for a year.

In June, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges adopted the 12 percent increase, which was the maximum allowed by the Legislature in the 2011-13 Operating Budget.

There is no chance the RTC Board of Trustees would approve less than the 12 percent increase.

“It won’t even really be enough to cover the gap from the budget,” said Williams. “So no, we hate to do this. We don’t want to do it, but this is the face of reality of the budget situation that we are currently in.”

The college is still deciding how to make up the money from the rest of the reductions. It does have a reserve of money saved from more prosperous times from which it can draw.

Williams pointed out the federal government increased financial aid available to students. For the college that means it has $8 million in Pell grants and federal loans for the upcoming school year.