Costs Mount for Colleges Testing Troubled Software System

SPOKANE (AP) — Costs are mounting for community colleges in Spokane and Tacoma that are testing a new $100 million computer system designed to improve record keeping at Washington's network of 34 schools.

The Spokesman-Review reports the software system known as ctcLink is about $10 million over budget and several years behind schedule.

Meanwhile, community colleges in Tacoma and Spokane that volunteered to test the system are incurring overtime costs trying to get it to work. Community Colleges of Spokane has racked up more than $500,000 on overtime costs, while Tacoma has spent at least $306,000.

The state Board for Community and Technical Colleges selected the system to replace one more than three decades old.

In November, experts hired by the board said the system shouldn't be installed in other colleges before October 2017, and only if all the problems at fixed at the test schools.