Feb 19, 2022 3 min read

When a business hands out pink slips, they sometimes say they are “right-sizing” their enterprise, if only because it sounds a lot less harsh and more forward-looking than saying they are sending a portion of their workers to the unemployment line.

So, even though the term “right-sizing” has the unpleasant odor of corporate jargon wafting around it, it is a fairly apt description of what the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) has been up to over the last couple of years. Faced with declining enrollment that shows no signs of heading in the other direction anytime soon, the system has combined six of its 14 campuses, with California University of Pennsylvania joining Edinboro and Clarion universities to become Pennsylvania Western University as of next summer. The three other combined campuses, all in the eastern part of the state, have yet to be given a new moniker.

Alumni, students, faculty and staff have all expressed concern about each of the campuses losing their identities and academic programs, among many other concerns. But combining the campuses – “right-sizing” them – appears to have been the best option available.

Along with 30,000 fewer students populating PASSHE campuses over the last decade or so, public universities like Cal U. have long had to deal with declining state support, both within Pennsylvania and across the country. If you were lucky enough to attend a public college or university in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s, you might well have been able to graduate without accumulating any debt at all. However, as lawmakers in many states have hacked away at funding for higher education, the tuition costs borne by American students and their families have increased by more than 200% since the late 1980s. More specifically, the cost of attending a PASSHE institution over the last decade has escalated by 50%. As Cynthia Shapira, chairman of the PASSHE board, pointed out, this hefty price tag “puts a State System degree out of reach for many low- and middle-income families.”

As part of a larger package that would increase revenue flowing to education across the board, Gov. Tom Wolf proposed in his budget address last week that PASSHE schools receive a $550 million, or 15%, increase in funding in the 2022-23 budget. This wouldn’t vault Pennsylvania into the top tier of state funding for schools, but it would at least get it out of the bottom five. More than a matter of pride, though, it would represent a much-needed investment in the state’s public universities.

Marc Steir, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, noted a couple of years ago that if the commonwealth increased funding for higher education, it would see higher wages, a higher gross state product and higher state revenues, “and that’s the virtuous circle of investing in higher education.”

With a labor shortage and a constant demand for skilled workers, investing in higher education needs to be one of Pennsylvania’s top priorities.