Pennsylvania colleges want more funding to increase enrollment

• Sarah Schneider/WESA
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Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned colleges and universities have lost a quarter of their students in the last decade, and this year the system recorded its steepest single-year loss. Chancellor Dan Greenstein says that dip is tied to the system’s funding from the state — and the lack of financial support schools offer low- and middle-income students.

“We’re the most affordable four-year higher education opportunity in the state, and yet we’re pricing students out of the markets,” he said.

Total attendance costs, including room and board, amount to $23,000 a year — nearly $100,000 for a four-year degree.

Greenstein has asked the General Assembly this budget season to increase its funding for the schools by about 15 percent, and to direct $200 million to a student financial aid program. He also has reminded legislators that about $150 million the system was promised last year is still outstanding.

According to Greenstein, the steepest decline in enrollment is among middle- and low-income families. Since 2010, enrollment across the 14 campuses has dropped by nearly 26 percent. While it once enrolled nearly 120,000 students, that number has dwindled to about 89,000 at the start of the 2021-22 school year.

Reversing enrollment trends relies on increased funding, he said.

“Middle- and low-income people don’t have access to the education they need in order to effectively participate in the 21^st-century economy where 60 percent of jobs require somebody in them with some post-secondary education, and only 51 percent of people have that,” he said. “So we’ve got to make up that gap.”

To do that, he said, the system has to reach people who can’t afford the current pricing.,

The system hasn’t increased tuition in four years. Greenstein has said that’s an act in good faith that the General Assembly will increase funding, rather than forcing schools to cover costs by charging steeper tuition.

“Is the state of Pennsylvania OK basically saying to low and middle-income people, ‘You don’t have those pathways, they’re not afforded to you’?” he asked. And “if we make that decision, how do we generate the workforce we need?”

The funding increase could be a hard sell for Greenstein, who has led an effort to redesign the system to reduce costs. Beginning next year, six schools will consolidate into two, each with its own leadership and budget — though officials have said the campuses will remain intact. In the western part of the state, Clarion, California, and Edinboro universities will merge. And in the north-central part of the state, Bloomsburg, Mansfield, and Lock Haven universities will be managed by one leadership team.

Greenstein said the administration has worked to cut costs and stabilize leadership. Now the system’s future is in the hands of lawmakers.

“We fixed all of the things like not being transparent or accountable. We’ve done all of that,” he said. “The question is, what does the state need from its public universities? … Our recommendation is the state ensures there are pathways for its low and middle-income people to have an opportunity going forward in the future to participate in the economy?”

The scholarship initiative has been called the Nellie Bly Program in honor of the early-20^th-century investigative journalist, who dropped out of Indiana University of Pennsylvania because of tuition costs.

Gov. Tom Wolf supports the $200 million proposal for funding the program. But previous requests have been rejected by the Republican-controlled legislature.

Lawmakers have until June 30 to approve a budget.