MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) -
Alabama's two-year college system handed another blow.
25%. That's how much legislators have cut from the two-year college system's budget over the last four years.
That includes slashing more than $9-million dollars in the 2013 budget.
While some administrators say they were bracing for the worst, the cuts aren't the only thing hurting them.
"It has a tremendous negative impact not only on what we do for our students, but we are able to do for our community," says Trenholm State Technical College President Sam Munnerlyn.
Munnerlyn admits $750,000 in budget cuts at Trenholm equates to difficult decisions regarding what programs, resources, and maintenance projects to eliminate.
"When you're down to bare bones the buck stops with me. And we'll make sure that the things that we purchase, the trips that we take are absolutely necessary for our college to function," adds Munnerlyn.
It doesn't help that two year colleges have also seen a decline in enrollment. Officials believe there are two key reasons for it. The economy has gotten better so fewer people are going back to school to learn a new trade and federal Pell grant money has decreased.
"The Pell grant issue is a major issue," says Dean Argo with the Department of Post-Secondary Education.
Argo says the federal government doesn't allocate as much money for Pell grants anymore.
Students only get enough to cover two semesters of tuition and books.
"Now that they've changed that I'll probably have to sit out a semester," says Trenholm Tech student Daniel Thompson.
Thompson can't afford school without the grants. In fact, many students aren't taking summer classes because of it.
Trenholm's enrollment dropped from 1,650 students during spring semester to roughly 1,000 for the summer.
Last summer they had nearly 1,300 students.
"We have lobbied congress as well as other states with their community college systems about re-looking at the Pell grant issue," says Argo.
Trenholm State administrators say the budget cuts could lead to teacher and staff layoffs.
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