State System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Greenstein says Pennsylvania’s workforce shortfalls are “evidence of the urgent need to invest in public higher education.”
Writing an editorial in the Allentown Morning Call, Greenstein stresses that “businesses will have the workers they need – and the products and services everyone relies on – unless more middle-and-low-income students can afford to go to college. The chancellor says “years of lagging state funding has taken a toll,” causing the cost of attending a State System School to increase by more than 50 percent in the past decade and making college unaffordable to many. Enrollment has slipped 26 percent over the same period.
Greenstein touts the ongoing State System Redesign as a major part of the solution and calls on the state to approve this year’s funding request, which includes a $72 million increase to hold the line on tuition, $201 million for student financial aid, and at least $75 million of the remaining $150 million in federal funds already reserved for the Redesign.
The chancellor writes that “The good news is the roadmap is there to solve this problem, and state system universities are primed and ready to build a robust talent pipeline.”
