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Community college presidents tell House panel enrollment surges, wait lists and workforce demand are straining capacity
Summary
Presidents from Idaho’s four community colleges told a House education committee that rapid enrollment growth, workforce training demand and program-specific accreditation limits are producing multi-term wait lists and straining lab and teaching capacity statewide.
BOISE — Presidents from Idaho’s four community colleges told the House Committee on Education on Monday that enrollment growth, wait lists and workforce demand have outpaced available classroom, lab and instructor capacity across the state.
Gordon Jones, president of the College of Western Idaho, said his college serves roughly 31,000 unique learners per year and faces long wait lists in high-demand technical fields. "We serve over 31,000 individuals per year...Our tuition is just around 30 for a full time student, you would be on average looking at $3,300 a year," Jones said, and described nursing, welding and automotive programs with multi-term wait lists.
Dean Fisher, president of the College of Southern Idaho, said CSI served 10,456 credit students last fall and roughly 27,000 credit and noncredit learners overall; he highlighted specific program bottlenecks, including a…
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