Gov. Shapiro wants to fix higher ed in Pa. His plan is just a start.

Pennsylvania students pay more for higher education than almost anywhere else. That’s primarily because the amount our state contributes to tuition is the second worst in the nation, averaging $6,100 per student compared with the national average of $10,200. Average tuition at a public institution for a Pennsylvania resident is $26,000 — 70% more than the national average.

This is enough to discourage many Pennsylvania students from continuing their education after high school and keep older adults seeking new skills from turning to college to help. As a result, employers may struggle to find people to fit their needs. And even though they’d much prefer to work to pay their bills, far too many people (nearly 25%) have to rely on publicly funded social programs to get by.

Yet education beyond high school — whether that means learning a trade or working on a certificate, studying for a degree or taking classes to obtain new skills — has never been more important in the lives of Pennsylvanians. Our economies, communities, and families keep changing in unpredictable ways because of layoffs, downsizing, and other sudden job changes.

These realities undercut Pennsylvania’s productivity, innovation, and competitiveness. Helping more adults go (back) to school would do a lot of good.

But for most Pennsylvanians, college classes cost too much, aren’t scheduled at the right times, or aren’t available near their homes. That’s largely because the General Assembly has dropped the ball for decades, offering way too little financial support to community colleges and public regional universities such as West Chester University, which are most welcoming to people who want to go beyond high school.

I’m glad that Gov. Josh Shapiro seems aware of this problem and interested in doing something about it. Recently, he released a proposal for reform that would lower the price of tuition at community colleges and public regional universities and bring them into a single system.

For students whose families bring in less than $70,000 per year, tuition at 10 universities and 15 community colleges would be capped at $1,000 per semester. He also proposes holding Pennsylvania’s institutions accountable for outcomes, like whether students graduate. That’s a start.

» READ MORE: A plan to overhaul Pa.’s higher education landscape is a long time coming, but questions remain.

There’s some evidence that this plan could work, but it isn’t perfect. For instance, Shapiro should expand the proposal to make all public universities part of Pennsylvania’s new public system of higher education.

As it is, his proposal would not affect four public universities where many Pennsylvania residents desire to go to college yet struggle to gain access: Penn State, Temple, Lincoln, and the University of Pittsburgh. These institutions should also be governed and funded as part of a single system serving Pennsylvania students’ needs.

He also needs to make another adjustment: help colleges and universities focus on the people who most need postsecondary education to change their lot in life.

While counterintuitive, there’s a lot of evidence that the people who get the biggest bump from college are the same people who are the least likely to attend and graduate. These are often the same folks who live in impoverished neighborhoods, work grueling hours at low wages, reside in rural areas, and/or suffer from health challenges.

They are also more likely to have little choice but to turn to state and federally-funded public benefits programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), public housing, and/or Medicaid to survive.

Pennsylvania needs to give them better choices, and a shot at a stable life, by helping them access more education and training. In doing so, the state will also help save itself money in the long run.

Shapiro’s plan should require Pennsylvania colleges and universities to find, enroll, and graduate adults receiving public benefits. This will create more efficient use of public funds, as people with more training or education can earn more money and need fewer public benefits.

Plus, if those institutions also help students on financial aid access those benefits while in college, they will produce even more graduates. Right now, as many as half of Pennsylvania’s enrolled college students are at risk of dropping out because they don’t have enough to eat or lack a safe place to sleep.

While most received federal student aid, that’s no longer enough to make college a viable financial option. They also need affordable housing, reliable jobs, childcare (one in five students has a child), health care, and/or SNAP.

Bundling the state’s investments in public benefits and financial aid will produce more workers ready for today’s economy, create more taxpayers, and eventually reduce the number of people who need public benefits.

The current plan calls on creating more first-generation college graduates — a nice idea, but very hard to put into practice, given how easy it is for colleges to game that metric based on competing definitions of what “first-generation” means.

It’s far better to focus Pennsylvania higher education on what matters most: helping more of its residents climb out of poverty, especially those more than two million households enduring the frustrating experience of working poverty. In addition, this approach would add billions to the state economy, reduce racial disparities, and likely ameliorate child poverty.

It’s an opportunity we can’t afford to miss.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, the author of “Paying the Price, College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream,” is a senior fellow at Education Northwest, an adjunct professor at Community College of Philadelphia, and the founder of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice.