Education cuts mean we're 'eating our seed corn' - Citizen Times

Area community colleges already have cut their budgets to the bone. Unless the state turns back from its cut-taxes-at-any-cost lunacy, the bone will be next. It appears the 2011-12 state budget will reduce community college spending by more than 10 percent. Additionally, schools have to set aside another 2 percent that may be called back by the state. In preparation, schools already are cutting back. Both Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and Haywood Community College have eliminated or scaled back entire programs. This is in addition to continuing reductions in the number of classes and increases in class size. A-B Tech has closed its branch at Asheville Mall. “We are now cut to the bone,” HCC President Rose Johnson told the Citizen-Times Editorial Board on Monday. “Eating your seed corn does not make you more efficient,” said A-B Tech President Hank Dunn.