Members of Pennsylvania’s House Appropriations Committee asked from Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Chancellor Dan Greenstein to testify during its budget hearing Tuesday.
Greenstein was asked to discuss Pennsylvania’s public university system’s funding request. PASSHE has asked for $573.5 million in the latest budget request, $21 million (or 3.8 percent) for inflation, and another $112 million for new funding for student support. The system said if the total of the budget request is received, it would allow its Board of Governors to consider freezing basic in-state undergraduate tuition for the fifth year.
“PASSHE is proud of our partnership with the General Assembly, which allows us to provide a high-quality education at the lowest possible cost to students,” said Chancellor Greenstein. “This budget request is designed to strengthen the pipeline from the classroom to the workforce by helping more Pennsylvanians to afford college, so they gain the knowledge and skills for in-demand, high-growth jobs.”
PASSHE said the $112 million would strengthen the workforce by enrolling and graduating more PASSHE students into careers experiencing labor shortages like teaching, nursing, physician assistants, social services, business, and STEM fields like computer science and engineering. Nearly all of it would be used for student financial aid, PASSHE said, which would lower the price of attending a PASSHE university.
“Across Pennsylvania, communities need more healthcare workers to provide care, teachers to educate our children, engineers to improve our infrastructure, social workers to improve lives, and computer scientists to enhance and secure our digital world,” Greenstein said. “Those needs match PASSHE’s strengths, and we’re ready to partner with the state to propel students into rewarding jobs that provide economic security for families and meet the needs of the marketplace.”
Within the state’s workforce, 60 percent of jobs require some higher education, while only 51 percent of workers have any education past high school. PASSHE said without access to affordable higher education in the state, employers will not have the workers they need to create the products and services residents rely on.