VIDEO INSIDE: Some lawmakers, students want to see cost-cutting instead of higher tuition
By Eric Boehm and Darwyyn Deyo | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — Several hundred Pennsylvania college students on Monday descended on Harrisburg to protest Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget cuts to higher education.
Buses from each of the 14 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education colleges and universities arrived for a day-long protest that coincided with a budget hearing on the 52-percent cuts in state taxpayer funding for the PSSHE schools. Students said they were told by school administrators that the proposed budget cuts would amount to a $2,200 increase in tuition, about a one-third increase for in-state tuition.
During a budget hearing later in the day, leaders of some of the PSSHE schools said the $2,200 figure would only be if the cuts were balanced entirely with higher tuition, which they promised not to do because infrastructure, classes and staff would face cutbacks as well.
Even if the potential tuition increases are overblown for now, students said cuts to programs and staff will limit their options, both in school and after graduating.
James King, a senior at Edinboro University, said the proposed funding cuts might hurt his plans to attend a police training program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, another PSSHE school. Though Corbett has proposed to increase funding for county-level state police training centers, King said that was not an attractive options.
“Then you have to commute every day, and this is just much more convenient,” said King.
Abigail Whitaker, a resident of New Jersey who goes to school at Shippensburg University, said higher tuition may force her to return home to the Garden State to get her degree.
“It’s cheaper for me to go to school here than in New Jersey,” said Whitaker, a sophomore communications major. “I’m not really sure how much it’s going to go up, but I might not be able to go to school here anymore.”
Out-of-state undergrad students who attend any of the PSSHE schools pay between $8,700 and $14,000 for tuition this year, depending on the school. In-state undergrads can attend any of the PSSHE schools for $5,800 this year.
The PSSHE’s board of governors has increased tuition every year since 1998.
State taxpayer funding for the system was $411 million in 1998. Last year, $444 million in state tax dollars went to the PSSHE schools, along with $38 million in federal stimulus funds.
In Corbett’s proposed budget, that total would drop to $232 million, with no federal stimulus fund since that funding is set to expire in June.
Last week, Corbett told reporters his budget cuts should not have come as a surprise to anyone who followed his campaign, a message Republicans have often repeated since taking power in January.
Even so, the cuts surprised Bryce Bendgen, a freshman communications major at Shippensburg, who said he voted the straight Republican ticket in the 2010 election.
On Monday, he was at the state Capitol to protest what he said would be a $2,200 increase to his tuition next year if the cuts were part of the final budget.
“You don’t expect someone to go after higher education,” said Bendgen. “That’s not something you expect to have taken away.”
State Rep. Bill Adolph, R-Delaware, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he would be “surprised” if the higher education cuts proposed by Corbett made it to the final version of the budget without being softened.
State Rep. Samuelsson, D-Northampton, said the cuts to higher education were unacceptable and promised the Legislature would do everything it could to prevent the cuts from being a part of the final budget.
Some students in the crowd also wondered if their schools could do a better job managing cost instead of turning the loss of state dollars into a tuition increase.
Jacob Spurk, a freshman at Slippery Rock University, said his school was building a new student union when funds would be better spent elsewhere.
“It’s a multi-million dollar project, and we have a $22-million budget deficit, best case scenario, with this budget cut,” said Spurk, a marketing major who said he is working at a Christmas tree farm to help pay his way through school.
“If we weren’t building that union and the funds were allocated correctly, that would actually take care of it for our university, if we didn’t pour all that money into a useless union that we don’t really need,” he said.
Jonathan Monger, a senior criminal justice major at Edinboro University, said the school recently finished building a new set of dormitories for students, leaving two existing dorm buildings empty.
“They’re old and outdated, but I can see how some people might be mad about it,” said Monger.
State Rep. Glenn Grell, R-Cumberland, said more than 70 percent of the system’s costs are in personnel and asked the university heads to work towards lower costs in upcoming collective bargaining sessions.
“You can’t bridge this funding gap without addressing personnel issues,” said Grell. “We have to look for some real cost-savings in terms of personnel, whether it’s voluntary retirement or early retirement incentives.”
The presidents of Bloomsburg and Clarion universities said the PSSHE has undertaken about $200 million in cost savings during the past eight years.
