A “State-Designated” System of Fourteen Public
Universities
As shown in
previous blog posts, Pennsylvania’s Constitution contains provisions governing
the funding of “public education” in the State.
Other provisions allow, but impose conditions on, the funding of private
and even secular (i.e., religiously-affiliated) educational institutions. These various provisions eventually led to different
labels being applied to institutions according to their differing levels of
State funding.
As described
in previous blog posts, those labels included State-owned, State-related and
State-aided.
Historically, the fourteen “State-owned” (PASSHE) institutions received the highest level of State funding after being designated by the State to deliver the traditional public university purpose to its students.
The Traditional Public University Purpose is Access
“Public higher education” was initially perceived as being so important to the well-being of society that the cost to the students of that education should be highly subsidized by the State. In that way, the family of every worthy student could afford to provide access to that education and, as a result, no qualified student would ever be denied access to public higher education because of an inability to pay.
It is well known that attendance at K12 public schools is now free and has always been free. But less well known is the fact that public universities were also initially free—though they are anything but free today.
According to an April 13, 2010 article by Anya Kamenetz in the online magazine Good: ¹
“In 1847, Baruch College, now part of the City University of New York system, was founded as the Free Academy, the first free public college in the country.” And,
“The era of free tuition ended, ironically, with the student movement of the 1960s, just as campuses were getting more populous, diverse, and democratic.”
Unlike Public Education, Public Higher Education is No
Longer Free
In the early 19th century, public schools (or “common schools” as they were then called) began to be mandated by law and built across America. And from that beginning till today, those public schools have been funded by all taxpayers, regardless of whether or not they had a student to send to those schools.
But the “Common School Movement” that created the first public schools in America also created a huge demand for public school teachers to staff the schools being built across the State and around the country.
The few universities that existed in the States in the early 19th Century were, for the most part, located in the major cities and could hence produce teachers needed to staff the city schools. But the rural parts of Pennsylvania and the other States had neither the universities to produce teachers nor any realistic way of luring enough teacher graduates from the city universities to satisfy an ever-growing demand for teachers.
This need for teachers in the rural public schools across America led to the creation of numerous private “Normal Schools” in those rural areas to meet that local/regional demand for teachers. The names of these initially two-year normal schools were changed as the States began acquiring them in the years after 1911, first to four-year “State Teachers’ Colleges,” then to “State Colleges” as academic majors other than teaching were added to the degree offerings, and finally to “State Universities” as graduate degrees began to be offered to build upon many of the various undergraduate majors, including teaching.
The Role of Demographics in Public Policy
Between 1850 and 1950 a consensus emerged in America to the effect that “public higher education” was a public good that benefitted all taxpayers—not just those who attended or received degrees from public higher education institutions—and that therefore public higher education was worthy of taxpayer funding.
As seen from the blog post of August 24, 2015, the consensus cited above had already been translated into public policy by 1950 in Pennsylvania when the State covered 90% of the cost of education at the fourteen “State-owned” institutions of public higher education, with tuition covering just 10% of the cost.
But over the next sixty five years, both the consensus about the worthiness of public higher education, as well as the actual levels of State funding, largely evaporated as the following figures clearly show:
The State share of annual revenue to the 14 PASSHE universities fell from 90% in 1950, to 75% in 1968, to 63% in 1983, to 49% in 1993, and to 25% today!
As a corollary, annual funding provided to the PASSHE universities by students, parents and alumni donors grew of necessity from 10% in 1950, to 25% in 1968, to 37% in 1983, to 51% in 1993, and to 75% today.
But while both the consensus about, and the funding of, public higher education both declined over those sixty-five years, one trend was quite clearly the cause of the other.
Life in a Democratic Republic
In a democratic republic like ours, based largely on majority rule, demographics are designed to play a powerful role in shaping public policy. An explanation for how the great drop in State funding could have occurred may be seen in our rapidly changing demographics: In the 50s and 60s a majority of households in America had at least one person 18 years of age or younger living there— someone who could benefit directly from public higher education.
But by the 2000 Census, only one
out of three households in America had someone 18 or younger living there;
and by the 2010 Census, that figure had fallen to only three out of ten households.
This meant that by 2010, fully 70% of the voting households in America
could no longer benefit directly from public higher education and probably
didn’t want their taxes raised to send someone else’s son or daughter to
college!
The drop in State funding for public higher education was assured as soon as elected representatives—from both parties—realized that a majority of their voting households could no longer benefit from it.
To be continued.
¹ http://magazine.good.is/articles/whatever-happened-to-when-college-was-free.
No comments:
Post a Comment