Students at Renton Technical College could see a 10 percent increase in tuition and the elimination of a staff and faculty position as the college tries to balance its budget with fewer state dollars.

The unemployed, people of color and immigrants are feeling the impact most of state budget cuts at the college.

Programs that serve all three groups of students have seen a reduction in classes, as the school has endured cuts this year and anticipates a $2 million reduction next year.

While Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed a 9 percent reduction in state funding, the state Legislature has asked community and technical colleges to prepare budget scenarios for a mid-level cut at 11 percent for fiscal year 2012 and 16 percent for fiscal year 2013. Legislators have also asked them to prepare a scenario for a high-end cut at 13 percent in 2012 and 18 percent in 2013.

“We just decided to pick $2 million, which would kind of be half way in between those two as kind of a planning number,” said RTC President Steve Hanson of planning for next year’s budget cuts.

“We actually had three years of budget cuts and so we’re serving more students with fewer people,” he said. “That makes for a pretty stressful environment for staff and faculty.”

Renton Technical College’s budget for fiscal year 2010-11 is $33.8 million and of that, $16.9 million is its allocation from the state.

The college system to which RTC belongs, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, received a one-time addition of $17.6 million dollars for 3,784 additional Worker Retraining Program students for 2011. That money, which they had hoped would become permanent, was not a part of the governor’s budget for 2011-2013.

The worker retraining money helps with tuition, supplies and books for the people who are unemployed so they can come back to school and get retrained.

Fall quarter, RTC was able to double the number of students in the program with the money they received; now things look uncertain.

Hanson guesses that 75 to 125 students might be affected by the loss of the program.

“We do have worker retraining money that’s part of our permanent budget, so we’d still have some funding for people who are unemployed,” said Hanson. “We just wouldn’t have as much as we had this year.”

The college has already had to make changes to its Basic Skills programs that includes English as a Second Language, Adult Basic Education and GED preparation. Funding for these programs came through a grant that was reduced, so the programs have been cut back spring quarter, meaning fewer classes were offered.

Hanson said there is a tremendous need in this region for ESL and Adult Basic Education, primarily for a lot of immigrants and students of color. Those programs, particularly if they lead to a GED, can help them get a better job, he said in an interview earlier this week.

“What makes that newsworthy is that those students are probably the most vulnerable,” Hanson said. “And so those courses really provide them with life skills and job preparation skills.”

Renton Technical has not decided which programs it will close, Hanson said, and it’s unlikely that they will make those decisions by June.

The budget cuts would affect staffing, too.

College officials are evaluating two open positions, one faculty and one staff, that they may not fill. They hope to offset the budget reduction with revenue that’s generated by their catering business, the bookstore and some leases that the college has.

“This college has been very conservative over the years, so it does have a reserve,” said Hanson. “And so I would recommend to the board that we use some of our reserve to help with that $2 million reduction.”

The school is not going to cover the governor’s budget cut entirely with tuition increases. They would have to increase tuition by 18 percent to fill the gap.

Gregoire has proposed a 10 percent increase, so tuition will go up at least that much, said Hanson.

For the past two years, tuition has increased 7 percent each year.

“In fact, even with a 10 percent tuition increase we may see fewer students simply because they can’t afford the increased cost,” said Hanson.

The Legislature is supposed to come up with a budget by late April. Hanson said his plan is to have the college’s budget for next year to the board of trustees in June.