Just how unaffordable is higher education in Pennsylvania?

Let Dan Greenstein, the chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, explain: “Our universities are the least expensive of all four-year options in the state of Pennsylvania, and still we’re asking students from middle-income families to spend 44% of their household income on a single student for a single year of college.”

Pennsylvania is among the least affordable states in the nation when it comes to higher education and that goes hand-in-hand with the fact that it ranks 49th when it comes to public spending on colleges and universities. It’s no wonder that students and their families are becoming increasingly wary of higher education if the cost of a bachelor’s degree also means carrying a millstone of debt around their necks for decades on end.

Gov. Josh Shapiro recognizes this is a problem. “We need to rethink our system of higher education,” the governor said last week as he unveiled a sweeping plan to overhaul higher education in Pennsylvania. Some of the details on funding were not revealed, but that will likely occur in the weeks ahead. Of course, it’s also open to question how much of it will remain intact as a 2024-25 budget gets thrashed out in the Legislature. Nevertheless, Shapiro’s plan has real promise.

First, it would confront the problem of affordability by capping tuition at $1,000 per semester for students in low-and middle-income households. It would also bring the commonwealth’s 15 community colleges and the 10 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education under one governance structure, and boost Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency grants for those students who are working toward degrees at private institutions.

Shapiro’s proposal also envisions further consolidation of administrative functions. Would that mean more campus mergers, like the one that brought together California, Edinboro and Clarion universities into PennWest University? We’ll have to see. The governor would also like to see funding for the four state-related universities – Penn State, Pitt, Lincoln and Temple – be based on performance metrics that would include the number of first-generation students who graduate from them.

Simply put, something needs to be done about higher education in Pennsylvania. Enrollment at schools within the State System of Higher Education has dropped by 30% over the last 10 years, and by 37% at community colleges. For a governor who wants to “get stuff done,” Shapiro deserves credit for getting the conversation started.

— Uniontown Herald-Standard via AP