RALEIGH - Call it an indicator: As the economy skids, enrollment swells at the two-year institutions that train much of the state's work force, so the North Carolina Community College System is asking the General Assembly for $27.4 million to cover both regular growth and to replenish reserve funds.

Kennon Briggs, the system's vice president for business and finance, says it is a pattern that can be tracked for 40 years. "When the economy is good, people are working, and when the economy starts to sour, our enrollment spikes," he says.

Enrollment charts show that full-time equivalents, or FTEs, the number used in the state's funding formula, increased at the community colleges by 3,141 from fiscal years 2001 to 2002. Once the 2001 recession took hold, FTEs increased by 15,939 from fiscal years 2002 to 2003.

An FTE is defined as one student taking 16 credit hours per semester for two semesters, Briggs says. At community colleges, because many students take only a few courses, it can take many students to cobble together enough credit hours to make an FTE.

Fall enrollment, Briggs says, showed an overall 4 percent enrollment increase year over year and spring receipts indicate that the upward trend is continuing.

For several years, the system has relied on a reserve fund to adjust for enrollment growth, he says. In 2006 and 2007, the emergency money was about $2 million, and the system needed about $6 million. But for fiscal year 2008, Briggs says, the system has $2 million and needs $12.2 million.

The $27.4 million the system is requesting from the General Assembly includes $21.3 million in regular growth funds and $6.1 million for emergency reserves. Briggs says that although the system needs more in its reserves, the $6.1 million is a realistic request to the legislature.

There is rapid growth in urban areas such as Raleigh and Charlotte because of in-migration, he says, but during hard economic times, factory closings and job layoffs lead to enrollment growing at community colleges that serve more rural areas, stressing the entire system.

John Quinterno, who researches community college finance at the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center, says the community college system gets squeezed because it is funded more like K-12 schools than like institutions of higher learning.

Community colleges are funded by the state based on enrollment in the prior year, he says. But unlike universities, which cap enrollment, community colleges are open enrollment and take students as they come. During economic slowdowns, Quinterno says, that causes short-term funding problems.

Funding for two-year institutions also does not include more money for high-cost programs, he says. Nursing courses, for example, have limits on class size and clinical requirements that make them expensive to administer.

"Everything is still based on a chalk and talk model with 30 people in a classroom and one instructor," he says.

William Ingram, president of Durham Technical Community College, says that the budget request, along with the reserve pot, is critical because the funding formula puts campuses a year behind. If enrollment spikes, he says, colleges get pinched.

"You're really sucking wind if you don't have additional funds," Ingram says.

Durham Tech has seen especially strong growth in job training programs such as nursing aide classes, medical coding and human resources development, he says.

But high-cost programs also are growing, Ingram says, including the nursing program and the courses that train workers to join clinical research organizations. "That is a very expensive program," he says.

When enrollment increases at Durham Tech, Ingram says, the campus taps into the system's reserve fund to add courses and services. But if demand outstrips the ability of the school to expand classes, Durham Tech will have to turn some students away, something the college has not had to do recently.

"The budget request really represents our base needs," Ingram says.