About 250 students who represented 13 community and technical colleges in Washington state shouted to the rooftops of the Capitol Rotunda last week in Olympia.

Their message: “No ifs, no buts, no fees, not cuts!”

The words represented the students’ tone regarding cuts to higher education funding at the community and technical college levels.

About 40 were there last Wednesday from Pierce College Puyallup, led by Student Body President Lauren Adler.

“If legislators can stand up for marriage equality, then this is the year they can stand up for higher education,” Adler told the students in the Rotunda.

Prior to the student rally, Adler collected 600 signed postcards from students on the Pierce College Puyallup campus. They pleaded to legislators to make funding for higher education a paramount priority and that investing in higher education has a direct, positive impact in the future of economic prosperity.

In bold lettering, the final message on the postcard read: “Don’t cut the solution.”

Adler picked up 250 more postcards from Pierce College Steilacoom. When Adler presented them to Rep. Hans Zeiger, R-Puyallup, Zeiger told her it was the largest amount of correspondence on a single issue he had ever received — even more than marriage equality.

According to the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, state funding for the institutions has dropped by 22 percent, from $750 million in 2009 to $585 million by June 2013. Additionally, higher education has gone from 10 percent to 7 percent of the state budget since 2009.

Gov. Chris Gregoire is proposing another $160 million in higher education cuts in 2013, including $75 million from the community and technical college system. The remaining cuts affect four-year universities.

To “buy back” the proposed cuts to higher education, Gregoire is proposing a temporary, half-cent sales tax increase from 6.5 percent to 7 percent. The proposal would raise about $494 million in revenue.

Rep. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, has taken issue with that proposal. He said the state should not use higher education as leverage to raise taxes.

State funding for community and technical colleges has fallen by more than $1,000 per student since 2008. If proposed cuts for 2013 go through, then funding will fall to $1,200 less per student.

The higher education cuts have lobbed a considerable blow to the Pierce College district which encompasses Puyallup and Steilacoom.

“Since 2008, we have had to cut over $8.7 million from our budget, and one of the ways we’ve done that is through eliminating staff positions,” said Patrick Schmitt, president of Pierce College Puyallup. “We have eliminated over 89 positions.”

Schmitt said that has caused the college to offer certain sections for students.

“We cannot offer as many sections as we have demand for,” Schmitt said. “We are turning away students at this point, not because we wish to, but simply because we don’t have the money to offer sections.”

Schmitt said that means a student takes longer to complete a degree or certificate. In some instances, a student may have to delay the start of school or continuing school because they can’t get the classes they need.

As of this year, Schmitt said there are 60,000 unfilled jobs in Washington state. About 300,000 are out of work, he said.

“What we have is a skills gap between the people who are out of work and the jobs that are available,” he said. “One way we have to address that in this state is to send people to community college to get the skills they need, but the cuts are making that extraordinarily difficult to achieve.”

Schmitt said education is a pipeline to economic prosperity.

“When you begin to ratchet down that pipeline, it begins to have long-term effects and a long-term throttling to the state economic prospect,” Schmitt said.

Clay Beaudette, a 25-year-old freshman at Pierce College Puyallup, said the cuts to higher education are frustrating because the teachers have to put in extra work if they want to do something. He said they have to spend money out of their own pockets sometimes to get things done.

For the most part, Beaudette said financial aid has paid for most of his schooling, but he said the cost of textbooks and supplies have been too much to bear at times. He’s rented his textbooks instead of purchasing them, he said.

“I hope to find out what (legislators) are doing about this,” he said. “If you have a rally, then legislators should probably listen.”

Zeiger plans to send each student who signed the postcard a letter to address their concerns.

“Students are very sharp and very well-spoken,” Zeiger said. “They see the linkages between higher-education funding and the future of our state’s economy. With the size of the community college system in the state, it’s important to have that advocacy.”

Adler encouraged Zeiger to stay in touch with her throughout the budget process.

She said she wanted to continue Pierce College’s voice at the Capitol.

Reach Puyallup reporter Andrew Fickes at 253-841-2481 Ext. 313 or email at andrew.fickes@puyallupherald.com.