PASSHE’s Majority and Minority
Stakeholders
PASSHE is the 14-University system of taxpayer-supported institutions
of higher education that includes
Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg,
Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg,
Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities.
As shown in previous blog posts, the 14 PASSHE universities are now,
financially speaking, 75% private. That is, 75% of the annual funding for the PASSHE headquarters in Harrisburg plus the 14 PASSHE universities around the State comes from the private checkbooks of PASSHE’s Majority Stakeholders, i.e., the students, parents and private donors, primarily PASSHE alumni.
25% of annual funding comes via State Appropriation, making the State PASSHE’s Minority Stakeholder.
Governance Shares vs. Funding Shares
The Minority Stakeholder provides a 25% Funding Share but clings to a
100% Governance Share.
The Majority Stakeholders provide a 75% Funding Share but receive a zero % Governance Share.
If there were evidence that the Minority Stakeholder was actually looking out for the interests of the Majority Stakeholders, the lack of any meaningful Majority Stakeholder representation on the various PASSHE governance boards—itself an un-American Travesty of Justice—might be barely tolerable.
But Pennsylvania’s Elected Officials and their Political Supporters—who control 100% of the governance seats on the PASSHE Board of Governors and the 14 Councils of Trustees—have routinely used their iron grip to advance their own personal interests at the expense of the Majority Stakeholders, especially the PASSHE students. Consider the following list of PASSHE Board of Governors’ achievements:
The Achievements of PASSHE’s 100%
Political Leadership
Since 2002, the Board of Governors has ignored the Act 188 statutory
purpose of the 14 PASSHE Universities which is: “To provide high quality
education at the lowest possible cost to the students.”
High Quality Education
During PASSHE’s first 19 years of existence (1984-2002), the Board of
Governors obeyed the specific language of Act 188 and produced a 29%
increase in the quality of the educational experience delivered to the PASSHE
students! This was an admirable
achievement built on two pillars: 1) Act 188 mandated “high quality education;”
and 2) the Board of Governors acted with fidelity to the law—and delivered it.¹
Most notably, this achievement was political but not partisan. In fact, it was a bipartisan success story!
Democrats and Republicans worked together during those early years to follow the law and to do what was right for PASSHE’s Majority Stakeholders. In effect the Board of Governors, with elected officials and political supporters from both political parties, acted with integrity to deliver the “Pennsylvania Promise” contained in Act 188: “High quality education at the lowest possible cost to the students.”
But during the subsequent eleven-year period between 2002 and 2013, the Board of Governors simply ignored the specific mandate of Act 188 regarding “high quality education” and instead, took actions which resulted in the loss of almost half (14%) of the quality gains (29%) of PASSHE’s previous 19 years.
This was a disgraceful “achievement” that was also—as in the earlier case—political but not partisan.
But here, Democrats and Republicans worked together to gut the quality gains of the previous 19 years!
Note that the statutory purpose of the law, Act 188, did not change between 1984 and 2013. The only thing that changed was the Board of Governors’ level of fidelity (or lack thereof) to that unchanging law.
At the Lowest Possible Cost to the
Students
Act 188 sets a clear and measurable limit on student costs. By law, PASSHE is to provide a high quality education “at the lowest possible cost to the students.” Note that Act 188 imposes no limitation on “tuition rates” or “tuition and fees,” but only on the “cost to the students.” This immediately brings up the difference between “sticker price” and “bottom line.”
Sticker Price vs. Bottom Line
Rather
than imposing limitations on PASSHE tuition, i.e., “sticker price,” Act 188
imposes a limitation on the “cost to the students,” i.e., the “bottom
line.” The bottom line is the amount
that a student must pay after Federal or State grants and private
scholarships have been deducted from the “sticker price.” Hence the bottom line
cost is typically lower than, and often much lower than, the tuition sticker
price.
Despite the clear mandate of Act 188 regarding “the lowest possible cost to the students,” the Board of Governors has ignored this part of Act 188’s statutory purpose, just as it ignored the “high quality” part.
In
2011, the average financial aid package for students at all institutions
nationally consisted of 51% grants and 42% loans. At California University that year, a typical
financial aid package consisted of 27% grants and 65% loans.
By 2013, the average financial aid package for students at all institutions nationally consisted of 52% grants and 39% loans. At California University that year, a typical financial aid package consisted of 25% grants and 66% loans.
Despite the “Pennsylvania Promise” contained in Act 188’s statutory purpose: “High quality education at the lowest possible cost to the students,” the official data cited above clearly confirm that since 2002 the PASSHE Board of Governors has been: 1) rapidly lowering the quality of a PASSHE education; and 2) failing to provide that PASSHE education at anything like the lowest possible cost to the students.
Not only has the Board of Governors failed to support PASSHE students with financial aid packages that lead to the lowest possible cost to the students—as called for by Act 188—it has not even come close to providing financial aid packages that lead to the average cost for all higher education students, i.e., the 21 million college students at all institutions across America, 75% of whom attend public universities.
To
be continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment