Friends, Pennsylvanians, colleagues at state-related universities, lend me your ears: This is silly. Sure, we can do the wailing-and-gnashing routine again, and come July we may even be able to rejoice in a "victory" in which we are slashed only 15 or 20 percent. But, surely, the writing is on the wall, and we should have learned how to read it by now.
In 1985, the state provided 45 percent of Penn State's budget; in 2011 it provided 6 percent. In 1985, in-state tuition was just over $2,500; today it is over $16,000. Over the past twenty-five years, the cost of a public college education has increasingly been offloaded onto individual students and their families, as education has been redefined from a public good to a private investment.
It is becoming increasingly clear that public support for higher education in Pennsylvania is a thing of the past. Last year, in response to Corbett's proposed cuts, some commentators wondered whether Pennsylvania's public universities should turn down all money from Harrisburg. That was a forward-looking proposal, but it did not go far enough.
I don't see the point of haggling over Corbett's budgets for the next six years, doing the kabuki dance year after year until 2018, when Penn State, Temple, and Pitt will be reduced to begging for Harrisburg to maintain the state's 0.5 percent slice of the university budget. The time for a game-changing initiative is now.
"Very well," you say. "But if, for instance, Penn State goes private, how will it make up the shortfall? Six percent of your budget is still a couple hundred million dollars." Quite true - and that's where the advocates of privatization have so far missed their opportunity.
