Higher education funding is vital - Citizen Voice

As he heads to Europe next week on a trade mission to promote Pennsylvania business, Gov. Tom Corbett's eagerness to blithely slash funding for universities raises the question of whether he sees higher education as a component of the commonwealth's global competitiveness. Corbett has proposed average 25 percent cuts in state funding for 14 state-owned universities and state-affiliated Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities - about $230 million that will have to be reconciled through tuition hikes, program cuts, layoffs and other measures. The proposed cuts are atop 20 percent reductions last year. As it absorbed last year's cuts, Penn State reminded the Legislature that state appropriations to the state-affiliated university - then about 6 percent of its $4.1 billion budget - primarily subsidize reduced tuition for in-state students. Reductions in state funding are inducements for Penn State and Pitt to accept higher percentages of out-of-state students at full tuition.