The chancellor of Pa.’s state universities makes a case for more funding

The chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education made his case for more state funding Wednesday before the House Appropriations Committee.

Daniel Greenstein said the 10-university system was prepared to freeze in-state undergraduate tuition for an unprecedented fifth straight year if it gets a 3.8% increase in its basic funding, plus an additional $112 million, most of it for direct financial aid to students enrolled in careers with employee shortages.

Those areas include teaching, nursing, physician assistant, social services, business, and STEM fields, including computer science and engineering. If granted by the state, $99 million would be used for direct aid to students — more than half of it toward those enrolled in teaching — with the rest split among the other areas. The rest of the money would go to support those programs.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania state universities to freeze tuition for fourth consecutive year

“Expansion is purely a matter of funding,” Greenstein said of producing more graduates in shortage areas. “The biggest obstacle to growing more nurses is we need to make it more affordable for students.”

Students in those fields with high financial need would get about $5,000 in aid, which would cover more than half of annual tuition. All students in teaching and social service fields, regardless of financial need, would get $1,500. That means high-need students in those two fields would get a total of about $6,500.

Greenstein pledged to grow by double digits the PASSHE graduates in those high-demand fields by 2030.

The funding also would help to attract more students to the 84,566-student system, which has lost about 29% of its enrollment since 2010.

If approved, PASSHE’s basic funding level would rise to $573.5 million, up $21 million. That does not include the additional $112 million that the system has requested. If that amount is included, it would get the system to about $685 million, or about a 24% increase in funding.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed only a 2% increase and none of the $112 million. If Shapiro’s budget stands, Greenstein said, the system would have to raise tuition “considerably.”

“We would go back to the old ways,” he said. “We would continue driving austerities. We would continue into the 14th year of aggressive recession management.”

In-state undergraduate tuition has remained at $7,716 annually for the last five years. Nearly 90% of the system’s students are from Pennsylvania.

The state system consists of West Chester, Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Slippery Rock, Shippensburg, Millersville, Indiana, Pennsylvania Western University and Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania.

State Rep. Napoleon J. Nelson, a Democrat from Montgomery County, questioned whether the $60 million that the system planned to invest in boosting teaching graduates really would make that big of a difference.

“I am passionate about ensuring that we build a pipeline for educators,” he said. “It is the most important thing that we have to do in this chamber and in this state right now. ... How do I ensure that the funds we are investing in the PASSHE schools over and above everything else we’re doing is our best investment to get to the outcomes we need?”

Greenstein said lowering the price of attendance will attract more students.

Several legislators drew comparisons between proposed funding in Shapiro’s budget for the state system and the state-related universities, specifically Temple, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Pittsburgh, whose presidents spoke before the committee Tuesday.

“It’s been somewhat befuddling over the last couple days at these hearings to see community colleges and the state system allocated a 2% increase whereas the state-relateds are getting a 7% increase,” said James B. Struzzi, a Republican from Indiana County. “I don’t understand why we are underfunding affordable higher education and perhaps overfunding the state-related system.”

» READ MORE: Pa. state universities are getting a historic boost in funding with state budget deal

The state system, however, did get more than a 15%, or $75 million, boost last year. It was the largest one-time increase awarded since the system was founded in 1983 and came after the system merged six of its universities into two. The state-related universities, meanwhile, were flat-funded, though Gov. Tom Wolf steered their way what amounted to a 5% increase in one-time stimulus dollars.

A legislator at Tuesday’s hearing asked the presidents of the state-related universities if they would commit to no tuition increase if they got the 7% increase.

They all said they could not.

“Inflation is through the roof,” said Brenda A. Allen, president of Lincoln University. “We could not manage without a small tuition increase.”

“I would agree,” said Neeli Bendapudi, president of Penn State, where annual tuition at its University Park main campus is $19,286.