Proposed education cuts termed 'catastrophic'
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No one expected Gov. Tom Corbett to propose spending more for education, but his proposal to spend more than $1 billion less -- including slicing state money for state-owned and state-related universities in half -- has left some reeling.
"It's even worse than I thought it would be," said Ron Cowell, a former state legislator who is president of the Education Policy and Leadership Council based on Harrisburg.
The governor's proposed budget also would affect school districts across the state. Pittsburgh Public Schools estimated its loss at $34.1 million. Mr. Corbett also called for a public school employee wage freeze and sought greater freedom to furlough teachers.
A news advisory from Penn State University called the cuts "catastrophic."
The 50 percent loss in state funding applies to the 14 state-owned universities -- including California, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana and Slippery Rock -- as well as four state-related schools: the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities.
If enacted, they likely would amount to the largest single-year cut ever in American public higher education, according to the Washington D.C.-based American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
"There have been some very large proposed cuts from governors this year, but this is so far off the charts it doesn't even seem plausible," said Daniel Hurley, the association's director of state relations and policy analysis.
He said universities that had already faced repeated state cutbacks the last decade won't be able to offset a hit this large simply by raising tuition, even though predictions of a sizable increase in-state tuition are already reverberating on campuses.
"I'm just curious as to what the governor is expecting," Mr. Hurley said.
There are many ways to calculate how much the level of education funding has changed because part of the 2010-11 budget was funded by federal economic stimulus money that will not be renewed. Mr. Corbett doesn't count the economic stimulus money in his comparison. The bottom line is this: The enacted 2010-11 state budget shows a total of $11.5 billion for education. Mr. Corbett's proposal shows a total of $10 billion, a decrease of $1.5 billion.
First Published March 9, 2011 12:00 am
