The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties released their response to Governor Tom Corbett’s state budget proposal, which they said keeps higher education at its current funding level.
Dan Spiegel, the spokesperson for the Kutztown University chapter of APSCUF, writes to the media, ‘On a personal note, my department recently surveyed our graduates, recent and not, and I am pleased to report that most of them are living and working in eastern PA. This won’t be the case if the quality of the education is eroded further by a state government whose priority is protecting the haves at the expense of the have nots.’
‘If higher education funding is not restored, and this budget proposes to keep it flat, tuition will continue to rise,’ writes Spiegel. ‘There is a tipping point where students will find education outside PA to be a better value, and the resulting brain drain will be catastrophic to this state’s future.’
In a Feb. 4 blog, APSCUF writes that the budget includes flat funding for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE).
‘Today’s budget address from Governor Corbett was neither a surprise nor very helpful. … the Governor announced another year at the same level of funding ($412 million) as the past two years — the amount PASSHE has been held to since the Governor’s 2011 proposed 54 percent cut was carved back to 18 percent by the Legislature,’ according to http://www.apscuf.org/blog/. ‘These numbers mean this: we are currently 47th in the country in per capital spending v. income; last year we were one of 10 states to not increase higher education funding; we rank 45th in 5-year change in higher education funding (-18.2 percent). None of those numbers are good.’
APSCUF writes in the blog that the faculty union will work with legislature to push for more funding. ‘We hope you will push your local legislator, too, to re-prioritize the state budget so we don’t continue to overburden our students and their working class families,’ according to http://www.apscuf.org/blog/.
