Washington Community-College System Declares Fiscal Emergency

Washington’s State Board for Community and Technical Colleges has overwhelmingly voted to declare the college system it oversees to be in a state of financial emergency, clearing the way for the colleges to lay off tenured and tenure-track faculty members, on an expedited basis if necessary. The board similarly voted to declare a financial emergency in 2009 for the 2009-11 fiscal biennium, notes its news release explaining its latest vote. The board tabled a vote on its latest financial-emergency declaration, in June, to allow more time to monitor the state’s economy and budget, and then went ahead and approved the measure last week after concluding that the outlook for the state was not improving.