Jul 18, 2023 4 min read

The current impasse over the annual state appropriations for four state-related universities – the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln – is not about attempting to deny students something. It’s about finally breaking a decades-long practice by universities of taking state money intended to hold down tuition, and then raising in-state tuition anyway.

Last year, the taxpayers of Pennsylvania threw down almost $600 million in subsidies for state-related schools. By state-related, we mean universities that present themselves as private schools but receive taxpayer dollars, presumably to hold down tuition costs for Pennsylvania students.

The idea was that the schools would reduce tuition for Pennsylvania students in search of an education. The impetus was a funding crisis at Pitt that the Legislature agreed to solve by beginning this funding program, with the understanding the school would lower in-state tuitions.

Tuitions went down: once. Since then, they have risen at three times the rate of inflation.

To get some sense of how state aid long ago decoupled from tuition rates, consider the period between 1999 and 2012. During that time, Pennsylvania taxpayers shelled out more than $1.85 billion in subsidies to the University of Pittsburgh. During that time, the Consumer Price Index rose by 35%. Pitt’s tuition jumped by 141%.

In years the state’s subsidy was decreased, Pitt raised tuition. In the years it was increased, Pitt raised tuition. The only constant in those 12 years was that you could count on Pitt to raise tuitions. The university has, in effect, declared itself immune to the laws of market economics and sent a strong signal that we’ve been throwing money at a lost cause.

This pattern has persisted for the prior decade as well. In 2000, Pitt’s annual tuition and fees cost a student $6,698. Today, an in-state student is billed $20,362 per year. That’s a 204% increase in tuition over a time the cumulative Consumer Price Index rose by 80%.

The schools have continued to lobby hard for state dollars while refusing to open their books so taxpayers can see what is going on. We need to understand why, no matter how many tax dollars we give, tuition continues to rise and students descend into debt.

That is why House Republicans are committed to holding these universities accountable. First, we are calling on all of our state-related universities to immediately freeze tuition in order to receive state funding. It is unconscionable that we send hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to these schools to only see them raise tuition on hard-working students. In fact, Lincoln University’s funding was separately approved overwhelmingly in the state House because they are the only one of these schools that indicated they would be willing to freeze tuition.

Second, the state-related universities should be accountable to Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law. There must be full transparency on how and where tax dollars are being spent. Consider it this way: if we pour water on one end of a swimming pool, the water should rise on the other end as well. If not, we need to go looking for the hole and repair it. That can’t be done without a full picture of how these schools spend.

One thing that has become clear in the debate over funding for state-related universities, is that state funding and tuition levels long ago ceased to be connected.

What is broken is not the state’s funding system – it’s the behavior of universities such as Pitt which have become billion-dollar corporations that dabble in undergraduate education. It’s great to have a world-class research university, whether in Pittsburgh, State College or Philadelphia. But a university’s core mission should always begin with educating the young people who have just left high school and are in search not only of careers, but of educations that make them more fully rounded citizens of a democracy.

It’s time to hit reset. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania needs to stop dropping dollars down a well so deep we can’t hear it hit bottom. Our universities have swelled their ranks with middle managers and administration while often casting off the job of actually educating undergrads to unpaid graduate students.

We can do better. We must. Undergraduate education is where the scholars and entrepreneurs of tomorrow get their start. Right now, the system has a roadblock built of debt.

Tim O’Neal, R-Washington, is House Republican whip