By Christen Smith |

The Center Square

Gloucestercitynews.net files

Pennsylvania lawmakers questioned a proposed $100 million redesign of its higher education system this week after years of declining enrollment left many of its 14 universities in the red.

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Chancellor Dan Greenstein said the “radical” plan – which includes a $20 million boost annually in state funding over the next five years – would allow the organization to share services, demolish underutilized buildings and encourage staff retirements that altogether could save between $80 million and $120 million through 2025.

“The universities have created five-year plans which demonstrate how they will balance the budgets from which these numbers are derived,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee during PASSHE’s budget hearing this week. “And they will be held accountable for this. … This can has been kicked down the road, and the road has ended.”

Gov. Tom Wolf’s $36.1 billion state budget proposal allocates $490 million to PASSHE and $12.9 million in support of the system’s redesign effort. Greenstein said the agency needs a 2 percent increase over last year’s funding, plus the $20 million appropriation, to target its joint goals of keeping tuition affordable and the five-year redesign plan.

Greenstein said PASSHE also renegotiated labor union contracts and created an extended sick leave payout program the agency hopes will encourage 200 staff and faculty to retire annually. In October, all universities implemented “sustainability policies” that establish balanced budgets and new procedures meant to effectively manage personnel – from curtailing the use of temporary faculty to consolidating existing roles at all levels to eliminating or combining duplicative programs with low enrollment.

“It’s going to require an unprecedented level of collaboration with our unions and close collaboration with our universities,” Greenstein said. “This will stretch us, but I am confident we are ready, and as the numbers portray, it is time.”

Enrollment across PASSHE’s 14 universities declined 20 percent over the past decade, Greenstein said, while state funding levels for the system rank 47th nationwide. Pennsylvania’s student debt is also the second highest in the nation, Greenstein added, despite the agency’s priority of keeping tuition affordable.

“You and all the students have the absolute right to be enraged and livid by the lack of leadership from this General Assembly,” said Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-Bucks. “The fact is that we are not investing where we should be investing. We are not giving you the resources you need.

“The cost that our students are asked to bear, as you just said, has a direct relationship with the funding we give to our state system” he added. “It’s inexcusable that Pennsylvania ranks 47th in the country.”

Other senators pressed Greenstein on whether the redesign plan should consider closing universities with lower attendance rates – an idea the chancellor said disenfranchises the rural communities many of them serve.

“I don’t think the numbers support your theory because the rural institutions are the ones that had the greatest reduction in numbers,” said Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming. \”I know how important Mansfield University is to the town of Mansfield, … but somewhere along the line, we really have to take a look at would we be better off closing them and folding the funding into the institutions that are really thriving.”

Sen. Scott Martin, R-Lancaster, told Greenstein the “backwards” prioritization of struggling universities concerns him and undermines the few schools that remain successful.

“My big worry, from many different perspectives, is the fact that we are missing out on opportunities with the institutions that are growing, that are doing their best to keep their head above water and that they cannot do these things because they’re not getting the resources,” he said. “The resources are being funneled through back channels to create opportunities that every single student in the commonwealth is not being given, in terms of scholarships, and that’s just fundamentally not fair.”

Martin’s comments reference Wolf’s $204 million proposed Nellie Bly Tuition Program, which would target financial assistance to full-time PASSHE students. Under program rules, students must agree to stay in Pennsylvania for as many years as they received the benefit.

Senate Education Committee Minority Chairman Andy Dinniman, D-Chester, criticized the scholarship program proposal during Thursday’s hearing, insisting that raiding the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Trust Fund would only result in court challenges the state is certain to lose.

\”I wish it was as simple as we’ve said,\” he said. \”If you try to take the money out … and to play this game of letting students think they will get these scholarships and they will not, because it will go to court.\”

published by Gloucestercitynews.net with permission of

The Center Square