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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | October 26, 2016 04:14 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Duane D. Milne |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | CUTRR: College and University Tuition Realignment and Reduction Act |
| SUMMARY I intend to introduce “CUTRR” at the commencement of the next session of the legislature. I have branded this acronym to stand for what will be cited formally as the College and University Tuition Realignment and Reduction Act. The first phase of this process will be formation of a special commission which will be charged with developing recommendations for legislative remedies as to how to allocate higher education dollars among a more limited number of institutions and campuses than currently is the practice. The envisioned end result is that achieving a more concentrated distribution as to where (which institutions) appropriations are invested will increase the impact of state appropriations per institution and therefore per student. CONTEXT and OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT My motivation for this legislation is to connect efforts to confront the twin challenges of coming up with budgetary savings for Pennsylvania as well as contributing to students and their families being better positioned to navigate the expense of higher education. The latter refers in particular to reducing the rate of tuition increases and, correspondingly, the student debt load that can result. My legislative perspective on this matter is informed by my now 25 year career in the higher education sector, both as a tenured professor at a PASHEE institution as well as an administrator at same. The vantage point I have gained via both my legislative and academic backgrounds leads me to the informed conclusion that the state could leverage hundreds of millions of dollars annually by a strategic reformulation as to where and how higher education budget dollars in the state are distributed. Given my academic career, I am often asked why Pennsylvania’s tuition levels are relatively high, and what can be done to reduce tuition costs in the state. Part of the answer, for the public university sector anyhow, is attributable to the reality that the Commonwealth expends limited dollars over a seemingly limitless number of separate institutions. This spread runs the gamut from all the PASHEE institutions to the state-related universities and branch campuses to the community college system and even to some purely private schools. I would assert that the structure of Pennsylvania’s system of higher education is overly fragmented from an organizational alignment and management standpoint, and the funding that follows too diluted per institution to exert a more meaningful impact on tuition control. This structural fragmentation and funding dispersion is a function in no minor manner because of duplication of curricula, programs and course offerings. This is only then exacerbated by instances of more than one public institution competing in the same region or market for a limited, and declining in some quadrants, base of students – and a base that is simply not going to fill sufficient seats at so many institutions. (I refer to “public institution” broadly to mean any university and/or campus receiving appropriations from the state budget.) A number of other reasons account for and reinforce this structural fragmentation and funding dispersion phenomenon, and I will be pleased to address such as this conversation advances. BOTTOM LINE A more focused distribution as to where (which institutions and campuses) appropriations are invested and a strategic rethinking of the metrics for justifying that decision would lead to a more value-added impact per institution and therefore per student. To facilitate decision making in this regard, as noted, my legislation proposes to establish a special commission charged with developing recommendations for legislative remedies as to how to allocate limited higher education dollars among a fewer number of institutions and campuses in the state. As a business model, the bottom line of CUTRR is that all savings leveraged from structural realignment and subsequently available for (re)appropriation across a streamlined public university sector will be stipulated to have as their express purpose certain uses that will help reduce tuition levels. This all will prove in the best interests of the future of Pennsylvania. |