RICHMOND, Va.

Two-year community colleges are seeing record enrollment as families squeezed by tough economic times steer high school graduates away from more expensive four-year universities.

While the shift solves one funding problem, it potentially raises another. Community college officials in some states, including Texas and Virginia, are concerned the precarious nature of their own finances brought about by rising costs and state government budget shortfalls could limit their ability to handle the anticipated influx of new students.

Preliminary reports from community colleges across the nation, which had overall enrollment of 11.5 million last year, show summer enrollments increased, a trend predicted to extend into the fall, according to Norma Kent, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Community Colleges.

Kent said the trend is in line with other economic downturns. Community colleges see increased demand for their work force-training programs from people who have been laid off or are in search of additional skills.

Nineteen-year-old Whitney Daniels of Mathews, Va., had hoped to attend a four-year state school this fall, but the recent stock market downturn diminished her family's college fund, making Rappahannock Community College a better alternative, at least for the short term.

The Daniels family had $20,000 in a college fund for Whitney, but the account's value has fallen enough that a four-year school would be out of the question without student loans an option that was unappealing to her mother, Debbie.

"We're approaching retirement in the next six to seven years," Debbie Daniels said. "I don't want to get heavily in debt."