If bill passes, expect higher tuition, less opportunity
By Joshua Young, Caln Township Commissioner
Joshua Young
Recently Senators Andrew Dinniman and Robert Tomlinson proposed Senate Bill 1275 that is aimed at allowing larger and financially stable universities in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education to break away from that system and become a state related university like Penn State, Temple, University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln Universities.
As a former chairman of the Slippery Rock University Council of Trustees I find this bill to be another example of Harrisburg’s lack of commitment to our public education system and the start of another broken promise to Pennsylvanians. I strongly disagree with the senators and believe that allowing West Chester University to leave the State System, which is the purpose of this bill, would result in the beginning of the collapse of the entire system.
The state system is made up of 14 universities in every corner of the Commonwealth and includes small, medium and large universities. We should remember that all of the universities were originally set up as normal schools, then state teachers colleges, then universities. The purposes of these schools was to create well-educated teachers for our public schools. Then, when the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) was created in 1983 the mission became a low cost four-year college degree opportunity for all Pennsylvanians. At the time, Governor Thornburg and the state legislature believed that it was in the interest of the Commonwealth to have a college educated public that did not burden them with massive debt, and they were right.
The state system, similar to the NFL and Major League Baseball, depends on major markets teams paying in to support the small market teams. The same happens with our state schools, big schools, like West Chester, help off set the costs at Clarion, Edinboro, Mansfield and Cheyney. This bill will put Mansfield, a small university in the northern tier, and Cheyney, the only Historically Black University in the State System, in real jeopardy.
As always, the problem is funding. Fast-forward to today and the State System faces enormous challenges. One main cause of the financial struggles for the universities lays squarely at the feet of the lawmakers in Harrisburg. In 1970 about 70% of the budget of the system came from the state appropriations with the students picking up the 30% cost. Today, less than 30% of the systems budget comes from state appropriations and the students are picking up most of the rest.
Today the average student college loan debt for the class of 2012 was $29,200, up $2,800 from 2011. In case you missed it, West Chester University ranked 77 in Kiplinger’s list of Best Values in Public Colleges Under $33,000. If this bill passes, tuition at West Chester and the remaining PASSHE schools is going to explode. Private colleges and the original state related schools, Penn State, Temple, University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University have raised tuition at a faster pace than the state-owned schools. If West Chester University leaves the State System there will be increased tuition for both the remaining PASSHE schools and West Chester. This bill will have a domino effect raising college tuition across the board and putting college out of reach for many who need it.
Senators Tomlinson and Dinniman have proposed a problem not a solution for the state system. If the senators truly want to help strengthen the state system, there are many changes that could have huge impacts. One huge impact would be to remove the red tape and bureaucracy from building construction at the State System schools.
Currently these contracts and specs take months and years to be approved as the bureaucracy is navigated, and many times the Department of General Services swoops in to manage the project and does a very bad job at it. Solution, allow the university and the state-system to sign off and manage their own projects. The PASSHE board has far too many members, and the office in Harrisburg and costs have grown exponentially. Solution, eliminate political positions like members of the General Assembly, the Secretary of Education and others from the PASSHE board. These are two examples that would help streamline and make the system more efficient, and there are many other items that could be fixed before we start to break off universities.
This bill sounds like another one of Harrisburg’s solutions that creates more problems than it solves, and ends up costing the taxpayers money to clean up Harrisburg’s mess. The State System is facing many challenges and Senator Dinniman and Tomlinson’s bill is one of them. Before we resort to extreme measures that will crash the system and deny many Pennsylvanians the opportunity to get a quality college education, lets first explore logical solutions to strengthen the system we have.
I call on my Democratic primary opponent, Josh Maxwell, to join with me in asking Senator Andy Dinniman, a prime sponsor of the legislation, to withdraw his support from Senate Bill 1275 and stand up for public education, stand up against exploding the cost of college and for keeping the educational treasures of Pennsylvania, our state school system, intact.
Joshua Young, a resident of Caln, is the former Chairman of Slippery Rock University Council of Trustees, a current Caln Township Commissioner and a candidate for State Representative in the 74th District.
