<p>More</a> cuts for Pennsylvania’s state universities?</p>
<p>One top of last year's severe cuts, the Phil Inquirer is reporting that Governor Corbett will propose ANOTHER 30% cut in state funding for Penn State, Pitt and Temple.</p>
<p>Our Governor is one of the most illustrious graduates of a fourth-tier law school along the Mexican border.</p>
<p>well… at least Gov. Corbett did ask for a few seconds of silence for Joe Paterno - you know, that elderly coach that Penn State Trustee Corbett got fired over the telephone.</p>
<p>With these cuts how will PSU ever find the money to settle the lawsuits from the current scandal? PSU may have to use some of their own money instead of the PA taxpayers contributions. Dear God…please make it stop.</p>
<p>Last year, the President of Penn State said that if Corbett’s 50% cut went into effect, he would have to seriously consider closing some of Penn State’s branch campuses. Most of those smaller branches are in Republican areas of the state. That total 50% cut is now proposed (25% last year multiplied by another 30% this year).</p>
<p>Corbett is publicly saying he doesn’t believe all these branch campuses are needed. Corbett also is publicly saying that he wants Penn State to consider whether they should become a private university (which would result in much higher tuition for PA. residents).</p>
<p>Corbett has also said that he wants to phase out ALL state dollars to public colleges, and instead just rely upon need-based grants to individual students. In effect, he wants to go to a voucher system for colleges. However, he is also cutting those state grants to individuals with financial need. </p>
<p>However, most of the press in PA. serve little more than as a steno pool, and the newspapers just print AP articles. They are letting Corbett get away with saying that the only alternative is an income tax increase, when actually there are alternatives such as slowing down his cuts to business taxes and closing the Delaware Loophole that allows many large corporations to avoid PA. taxes.</p>
<p>[Onward</a> Debates: Private State University - Onward State](<a href=“http://onwardstate.com/2012/02/09/onward-debates-psu-should-go-private/]Onward”>Onward Debates: Private State University)</p>
<p>Corbett says Penn State needs to decide whether it is a public or a private university. The linked column says if the state won’t fund it, Penn State should call the governor’s bluff and become Private State University.</p>
<p>By the way, Corbett today did find $2 million today to pay for the Arlen Specter Library, to hold his papers. He also found $100 million last month to buy an office building for the state.</p>
<p>It is interesting to see other states using their universities as economic engines. The cities realize this - Pittsburgh and Philadelphia both know that most of their employment growth has come from universities and health care, and that health care is directly connected to the universities. </p>
<p>Pennsylvania attracts huge numbers of affluent out of state students, some of whom stay and create new businesses. Part of the reason is that most of Pennsylvania’s public universities were of higher quality than what was offered in New Jersey, on the average. One third of the students at Pitt and University Park are out of state, and there are also high numbers at East Stroudsburg, Temple, West Chester and others. However, with these severe cuts, that situation could rapidly change. Those out of state students effectively subsidize the tuition of in-state students. </p>
<p>One person said Corbett is trying to do “Privatization With a Plan.” He makes very few clear public statements about what he really intends to do. </p>
<p>Here is what Corbett said the day after his budget speech on PA. Cable News, when he actually took a real question from a citizen about the university cuts: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>He kept saying that he taught in a school for a year. (He then left to go to a 4th tier law school along the Mexican border - I guess he couldn’t get into Pitt, Dickinson or Temple’s law schools). </p></li>
<li><p>He justified the cuts to Penn State by complaining that it costs $93,000 to earn a Penn State degree. He said “Penn State needs to decide whether it is a public or private university.” (Is he actually encouraging Temple, Penn State and Pitt to go private, and charge much more tuition to Pennsylvania residents???) </p></li>
<li><p>He didn’t mention that he also is cutting community colleges, which provide the most affordable tuition and serve large numbers of low income students and displaced workers in need of retraining. </p></li>
<li><p>He justified the cuts to the universities by saying that truck drivers make more than school teachers. </p></li>
<li><p>He justified the cuts to the universities by saying that there are not enough teaching jobs for all of the people who graduate from public and private colleges in PA. with teaching degrees. (Maybe we need to avoid more teacher layoffs. There already were over 1,000 in Pa. last year.)</p></li>
<li><p>He kept repeating that he refused to increase taxes. He didn’t mention that his budget includes a $247 million business tax reduction that approximately equal to the $257 million he wants to cut from public colleges. He also didn’t mention other ways of raising revenue, such as closing the Delaware loophole that allows large corporations to avoid paying their fair share of PA. taxes by funneling profits to subsidiaries in the state of Delaware. Many other states have closed that loophole. By the way, the vast majority of corporations in Pa. don’t pay any corporate income tax to the state.</p></li>
</ol>
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<p>The cuts represent just 1.6% of the PSU operating budget. Source - NPR</p>
<p>[Primer:</a> General Funds](<a href=“http://www.budget.psu.edu/openbudget/primer_genfunds.aspx]Primer:”>http://www.budget.psu.edu/openbudget/primer_genfunds.aspx)</p>
<p><a href=“Error Page”>Error Page;
<p>State funds make up 14% of Penn State’s general academic budget. </p>
<p>State funds made up 50% of Penn State’s general academic budget in 1987 and 30% in 2007.</p>
<p>The trick is when they start adding up residence halls, dining facilities, the airport, the Hershey Medical Center operations, the golf courses, the hotels, the research park, and then claim that the state money is a small percentage of those total operations. Those other operations are designed to be self-supporting, and were never intended to be subsidized by the state.</p>
<p>The state appropriation is critical to maintain a discount for in-state vs. out of state students. If the state appropriation disappears (which Corbett would like to do eventually), the in-state tuition rate would go up to the out of state rate.</p>
<p>Penn State and Pitt have the distinction of having the two highest in-state tuition rates in the US. On the average, PA. is 40th among the 50 states in average state spending per public university student. If these cuts continue, we wil be battling Mississippi for 50th place.</p>
<hr>
<p>Take a look at the data for each public university on collegeboard.com. None of the public universities in PA. come close to meeting all of student’s proven financial needs. Penn State is only about 50%. The Governor is at the same time cutting the PHEAA program that provides need based grants directly to students.</p>
<p>There are some solutions - close the Delaware Loophole that allows many corporations to unfairly avoid PA. taxes. Delay the reductions in the State business tax rates. Raise the gas extraction fee to a rate that is equal to an average for similar states, instead of having one of the lowest rates in the country. Spend some of the state’s surplus, which Corbett says he needs to save for “a rainy day.” Hey, its really raining down here.</p>
<p>Other states such as Maryland are handling these matters in a much more intelligent matter. They are rewarding universities with funding if they improve cost-efficiencies, avoid large tuition increases and increase enrollments in science, technological and other fields where there are the greatest needs. That may involve financially penalizing some universities that refuse to adapt. However, it doesn’t involve blindly slashing every university’s funding with a machete.</p>
<p>Good points. I guess you can make stats say anything. Any subsidy of higher education will come at someone else’s expense . Other states like Ohio and NY have traditionally used lottery money to subside higher education. PA has not.</p>
<p>I suppose i am the only one here that sees this as a potentially good thing. I have a feeling if i go into why, i’ll be starting a war.</p>
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<p>12artleye: </p>
<p>I’m glad your family could afford to spend $5,000 to hire a personal college consultant for you and for you to travel throughout Europe, as you noted on other threads. However, for other families who are not part of the 1%, a $5,000 to $8,000 increase in in-state tuition to make up for state funding would really hurt.</p>
<p>I am baffled by the Gov’s general dismantling of education, period. From charter payments to private subsidies to stupid exams (Keystone exams! Yay! More time wasted testing!!) to defunding higher ed, PA is racing to the bottom. Currently something like 40th for education funding. If his intent is to privatize Penn State, then okay — let’s just put that out there and get to work. If his intent is to get some of the reckless spending to stop, there has to be a better way to do that. But PSU and Pitt haven’t been the “state” universities for years – Clarion, Ship, Kutztown, etc. are, and have tuition to reflect it. Certainly the astronomical cost of PSU hasn’t slowed down people’s interest. No solutions here, just aggravation…</p>
<p>[CLEAR</a> Coalition](<a href=“http://clearforpa.org/]CLEAR”>http://clearforpa.org/) </p>
<p>[Pennsylvania</a> employees’ unions suggest ways to cut state budget | PennLive.com](<a href=“http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/02/pennsylvania_employees_unions.html]Pennsylvania”>Pennsylvania employees' unions suggest ways to cut state budget - pennlive.com)</p>
<p>A coalition of PA. labor unions has compiled a list of over $2 billion of increased revenues and reduced costs that could be undertaken by the state government to avoid the need to slash funding for education. </p>
<p>These proposals received almost NO attention by the media. The media is letting people believe Corbett = that the only choice is to slash education funding and programs for the needy or to raise their income taxes.</p>
<p>Cost-Savings Recommendations: </p>
<p>Fair Oil and Gas Drilling Statewide Excise Tax: $247 million
Close the Delaware Corporate Tax Loophole: $550 million
Close the Sales Tax Discount Loophole: $74 million
Right-Sizing the Management – Worker Ratio :$214 million
State Contracting Reform: $200 million
Consolidate Prescription Drug Purchases: $50 million
Rebalance Long Term Care: $200 million
Vehicle Fleet Efficiencies: $11 million
Cost-Effective Payment Methods:$50 million
Cut Medicaid Provider Fraud and Abuse: $60 million
Halt Wasteful Charter and Cyber School Costs: $175 million
Reduce Prison Costs While Ensuring Public Safety: $60 million
Improve State Tax Credit Programs: $30 million
Improve State Tax Collections: $231 million
Modernize, Not Privatize, the PLCB: $75 million
Increase Collections under Pennsylvania’s Unclaimed Property Laws: $50 million
Process Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Payments for Other States: $50 million
Leverage More Federal Dollars through the Hospital Assessment: $50 million </p>
<p>TOTAL PROJECTED SAVINGS: $2.377 billion</p>
<p>Charlie, my family’s financial situation is irrelevant. There are, and always will be affordable universities for students who deserve it. I’m hinting at merit aid for those who don’t follow. And also, pretend PSUs tuition goes up 5G…if a family can’t afford it, it will be reflected in their EFC and then solved. Or maybe the student takes out a loan if the family cant pay it. Guess what, my family can, but my mom still wants me to take a loan, for the sake of me having my money invested in my education so i dont drop out and waste theirs.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>Do your really believe that Penn State meets 100% of need??? Do you want to bet $10,000 of your daddy’s money that Penn State only meets 56% of documented need? </p>
<p>Within that 56% of need that is met, most involves federal and state grants and federal loans and federal work study, not Penn State money. </p>
<p>Did you know that the interest rate on federal loans for all colleges is about to double, starting in July? </p>
<p>[College</a> Search - Penn State University Park - Penn State - Cost & Financial Aid](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>Just about the only merit aid for incoming freshman at Penn State is the Honors College, for which few students qualify. That is only $3,500 a year, which wouldn’t make a dent if the Governor succeeds in jacking up the in-state tuition.</p>
<p>Smh at liberals… ;)</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>Why are we ganging up on the kid who has money?..</p>
<p>[Penn</a> State, Pitt, Temple Defend Need for State Funding at Hearing - Democratic Underground](<a href=“http://www.democraticunderground.com/1074608]Penn”>http://www.democraticunderground.com/1074608)</p>
<p>I’m still curious – seriously – why Art thinks this is a good thing…although I agree, where is this extra tuition being “made up” from? PSU has terrible merit aid. And by terrible, I mean practically none. “Financial aid” as loans is just giving you permission to be horribly in debt by graduation, which is not much “aid”, imho.</p>
<p>Penn State has weak merit AND need based aid. The Penn State President reported yesterday that the average Penn State grad has an average debt of $33,000. That is much much higher than most public and private universities. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20120223_At_Pa__hearing_on_cuts_in_college_aid__Christie_s_added_college_funding_is_praised.html[/url]”>At Pa. hearing on cuts in college aid, Christie's added college funding is praised;
<p>Those debt numbers typically do not include any debt in the parent’s name (such as PLUS loans, home equity loans and loans against retirement accounts, which have become extremely common in the last couple years).</p>
<p>The simple reasons are: </p>
<p>1) Even before these budget cuts, Penn State has always received much less per student in state funding than other quality flagship universities throughout PA (see the link a couple posts above for more detail) and </p>
<p>2) Even before these budget cuts, Penn State had the highest in-state tuition among public universities in the US. Pitt continues to be number 2.</p>
<p>If PA. had been overly generous in funding public universities, then these draconian cuts would make more sense. However, PA. averages 40th in the US in funding per public university student. We will soon be in competition with Mississippi for last place.</p>