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Politics & Government

Corbett Budget Threatens to Increase Tuition at PA's State Schools

Over the last decade, funding for Pennsylvania's public universities has fluctuated, but tuition has never decreased.

In the face of Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget cuts, the State System of Higher Education is arguing it already strives to control tuition costs.

“This fiscal crisis is a time to re-think state spending on higher education,” Corbett said in his budget address earlier this month. “Despite state subsidies over the past decades, tuition has continued to increase. If the intent was to keep tuition rates down, it failed. … When it comes to higher education, we should do the same thing that we do in basic education--the dollars should follow the student.”

But Kenn Marshall, spokesperson for the State System of Higher Education’s 14 colleges and universities, insisted the state system was meeting its mission's goals of providing affordable and quality education.

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“In four of the last six years (our tuition) has been below the rate of inflation, which is a record I don’t believe any other public university system in the country can match,” said Marshall. “We take very seriously our mission of providing quality and affordable education. We have had tuition increases in most, but we have worked very hard to keep those as low as possible while continuing to increase the quality of education.” 

Andrew Gillen, research director at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research center, said colleges and universities really never have enough money. 

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“Every time state appropriations go down, there’s always these stories in the newspapers about how universities are responding by raising tuition, but you rarely see the opposite of that,” said Gillen. “Schools are never really going to have enough money. Whenever they get new revenue sources or more (revenue) from one of their sources that gets them to spend on building a new science center, building a new gym, making the dorms fancier--there’s an asymmetry when it comes to state appropriations and their effect on tuition.”

Sadly, the same is true of Pennsylvania. In this case, the state government assistance to the State System of Higher Education could simply lead to an expanded demand by students to attend the colleges. In 2009-2010, 109,636 students enrolled at the State System of Higher Education colleges, compared to 90,287 in 2000-2001. That year, 24.7 percent of students graduated in four years--and last year the graduation rate was up to 34.8 percent, even while the enrollment population had grown 21 percent.

At schools in the State System of Higher Education, tuition for a two-semester year has grown from $4,016 in 2001-2002 to $5,804 in 2010-2011, a 44.5 percent increase. Year to year, the average tuition increase has been 4 percent, with a jump of 9 percent between 2001-2002 and 2002-2003, and a low of 0.2 percent between 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.

Comparatively, the rate of inflation in the northeastern U.S. during the past 10 years has been 2.7 percent, with a high of 4.14 percent between 2005 and 2006 and a low of 0.49 percent between 2009 and 2010. The State System of Higher Education bettered northeastern U.S. inflation three out of the past 10 years.

“Over the last 10 years, we have cut about $200 million out of our budget through a variety of methods,” said Marshall. “We’ve engaged in more collaborative purchasing, buying supplies, services, equipment together. We have completed a number of energy conservation projects on our campuses…so we are doing a lot of things to control our costs…so we can further keep tuition increases down.”

Salaries for faculty and staff have risen as well as tuition, however, and Marshall attributed the rising costs to two factors--utility costs and health care.

“Even though we’ve done a lot to conserve energy, utility increases have been significant,” Marshall said. “The largest increase has been in health care. Even though we require our employees to pay an increasing percentage of their health care, (it is) going up by double digits…if not exceeding double digits. Those are probably the two areas that hit us very hard every year.”

Between 2000 and 2008, faculty salaries increased 21 percent on average. From 2000 to 2008, tuition increased 4.6 percent on average. Faculty at the State System of Higher Education are divided into four categories: professor, associate professor, assistant professor and instructor.

In 2000, the average nine-month salary for a professor in the State System of Higher Education was $80,010. In 2008, the average nine-month salary was $96,873, a 21 percent increase.

Associate professors in 2000 made, on average, $64,245 for nine months. In 2008, the average salaries jumped to $77,313 for nine months, a 20.3 percent increase.

State government subsidies to the State System of Higher Education, however, have been more erratic.

In 2010-2011, state government appropriated $444.4 million, compared to $450.7 million in 2000-2001, though six out of the past 10 years saw an increase in funding, with the most appropriated in 2008-2009 for $498.5 million, just when the recession was picking up steam. During the past 10 years, the subsidy amount has actually decreased by .048 percent, with the highest increase at 5 percent.

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