SHORELINE, Wash. - Record numbers of students have enrolled this fall at Washington's community and technical colleges - the state reports nearly a ten-percent increase over last fall - but many of the schools are preparing for more cuts to staff and services. This week, teachers at Shoreline Community College north of Seattle, received word the new year may bring another round of layoffs. After losing 15 full-time teachers already, classes are full and instructors are swamped, according to Gary Parks, writing instructor and president of Local 1950.

"Much of what we do has to be highly individualized because we serve such a wide variety of people - people from all kinds of backgrounds, all sorts of academic needs. So, when you reduce the amount of time that's available individually, it causes problems in just getting the job done."

In worker retraining programs, enrollment is up 77 percent over a year ago, and instructors' chief concern is that people are enrolling with high hopes of better job skills, says Parks, and they may be getting less than what they're paying for.

"The rest of their life will unfold with them having learned less about writing, math, social science, nursing, and all those things we teach - because of the fact that these two years have been under the budget crunch."

Community colleges were under-funded even before the recession, he adds, and it may take years for the system to recover, even without additional cuts. A 14-percent tuition hike at state schools was approved earlier this year. About 162,000 people in Washington are enrolled in community and technical, two-year colleges; a figure that tops last year's record by 9.5 percent.