Senate hearing on State System of Higher Education bemoans lack of dollars

HARRISBURG — Senate lawmakers on Wednesday grappled with how to reduce Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed 47.67 percent cut to the State System of Higher Education, raising fears of students needing more than four years to complete a degree.

  Corbett has proposed cutting the subsidy to the higher education system from $444.47 million to $232.59 million — a cut of $2,200 per student, said John Cavanaugh, chancellor of the State System of Higher Education.
“I do not see any way we can translate that whole amount into a tuition increase,” said Cavanaugh told a Senate Appropriations’ budget committee. “That’s just not viable. Where that ends up will need to be (part of) the process of budget restoration.”   The cuts send the system's funding back to 1983 levels when it was founded, and when it received a subsidy of $235 million. Inflation makes the 1983 levels even lower in today's dollars.
“That’s $2.5 million more than what we want to appropriate this year,” said Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Robert Tomlinson, R-Bucks. “We have to make sure that we know what we’re actually doing, to say that we’re going to go back 28 years in funding, when in fact they had 81,000 students and today we have 120,00 students.”
It also could mean 2,600 job cuts across the board, including faculty and staff, based on average salaries and no other measures taken. Between 2000 and 2008, faculty salaries increased 21 percent on average, from $80,010 in 2000 to $96,873 in 2008.
However, Cavanaugh said a strong likelihood exists that tuition will go up, personnel and curricula will be cut and students will not finish in four years, stretching their costs out over five or more years.
“In terms of curriculum, obviously if we were looking at a situation with no budget restoration with the governor’s proposed budget, we would be looking at some fairly dramatic changes,” said Cavanaugh. “It would be no question that it would take students longer to graduate. Whatever tuition increase ultimately occurs would be a double hit given the high probability that students would not be able to graduate in a timely fashion.”
The State System of Higher Education’s current four-year graduation rate is 30 percent, which Cavanaugh said does not include students who start in the spring, who leave for military service or who transfer from community colleges.
State government subsidies account for 32 percent of the State System of Higher Education’s total budget. Cavanaugh said 90 percent of the 120,000 member student population comes from Pennsylvania, and on average they graduate with $23,000 in debt.
The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency would be able to pick up some of the slack but it is also facing cuts in Corbett’s proposed budget, with $7.3 million less available in student grants for the 2011-2012 school year.
However, Cavanaugh said if some state requirements on the higher education system were lifted, more money could be saved.
“I think what we have learned over 30 years almost is there are constraints on what we can do,” he said. “There are constraints on what we’re allowed to do in terms of private fundraising. There are constraints on the different purchasing associations we can join. There are very large interstate higher education purchasing associations we are prohibited by law from joining. There are a number of areas that we would be more than happy to engage in.”
Other options explored include offering an early retirement package, which 63 percent of those eligible took this year. The system also is facing the expiration of its collective bargaining agreements at the end of June, with health care costs expected to increase 9 percent to 10 percent.
“I think the amount that is being slashed is unconscionable,” said state Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland, “but going from there, we all have to be part of saving.”

Deyo is a journailst with the Pennsylvania Independent