WASHINGTON COMMUNITY COLLEGES: HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

The purpose of this article is to present a brief history of the development of community colleges in the state of Washington beginning with the founding of Everett Junior College in 1915. The college was founded as an extension of the high school with the full approval of the University ofWashington. Its closure for lack of students in 1923 left the state without a junior college until 1925. Lacking enabling legislation and thereby lacking financial support, the development of junior colleges in Washington lagged behind that of most other states until the 1960s. Its growth in the 1960s was dramatic. By 1971, Washington was recognized as one of the seven pacesetter states in community college development. Information is provided on the current legal, demographic, and financial conditions of the 33‐college system. The concluding section identifies some of the problems to be confronted in the concluding years of the 1990s. The emphasis is on the changing composition of the student body and the enlarged segments of society seeking community college services. The dominant force that will shape the balance of the decade for community colleges in the state will be the severe financial constraints imposed by a spending initiative approved by the voters in 1993 and being implemented in the 1995‐1997 biennium.