John Baer: Cut college aid? Brilliant, folks

SOME MINDSETS milling around higher education are dispositions deserving of dunce caps.

They not only provide for further divide between left and right, leading to more government stagnation. They also summon the pitchfork crowd, anti-academics a la the Know Nothing Party.

You see it nationally and locally.

Take, for example, Gov. Corbett's call to cut higher-ed funding by hundreds of millions of dollars, including a 30 percent cut at Temple University.

This comes after last year proposing a cut of 50 percent.

Although the Legislature ultimately reduced that to 20 percent (which still led to tuition increases), and could act similarly this year, Corbett's direction is clear: less support for schools, more burden on those attending or seeking to attend them.

His two-year plan was 80 percent less. How this paves a path to "the prosperity of tomorrow" to which the governor claims he is leading us is open to speculation.

What's fact, however, is that U.S. Census data shows Pennsylvania dead last in the percentage of college grads (26 percent) in mid-Atlantic states; and nationally, 25 other states do better.

Maybe the thinking is: "Hey, ain't there 50 states? Why spend on book-learnin' when we still got so far to fall?"

Contrast Corbett's efforts with those of Mayor Nutter.

In a city with 17 four-year schools, with two dozen more across the region, Nutter meets regularly with college and university presidents, pushes for higher local-student-acceptance rates, more scholarship money and college summer programs to expose kids to schools. Last week, he launched a "Financing College Campaign" urging more kids to apply for grants and college admission.

"Education is the best poverty-reduction program you can ever come up with," says Nutter. "That's what lowers your crime rate. It leads to employment, self-sufficiency and citizens who are net contributors."

He adds, "The governor obviously believes he's forced to cut at a time we should be investing more."

When I ask how citizens, kids and families should interpret these variant stances and beliefs put forth by different leaders, Nutter says: "It's a confusing message."

It is indeed - and on the national scale as well.

The U.S. ranks 12th among developed nations in percentage of citizens with college degrees, according to the College Board, a New York-based, national nonprofit education-advocacy group.