State senator Joe Pittman has issued a statement concerning Governor Shapiro’s plan to overhaul the higher education system in Pennsylvania.
Currently, Pennsylvania sits 48th out of 50 states for affordability of higher education, and 49th for investment in its universities. Shapiro’s plan comes after a year of work from the Higher Education Working Group, a group that Shapiro put together to create suggestions on how to raise the state’s rankings in those categories. His plan has four points:
- Bringing together the State-owned universities and about15 community colleges under a new governance system, which would preserve local leadership.
- Investing more into higher education and making it so low- and middle-income students would not have to pay more than $1000 a semester to attend a state-owned school or community college.
- University funding based on performance and increasing transparency in the outcomes of schools
- Funding to go through the state Department of Education
In his own statement, Pittman said that he appreciates the perspective that Governor Shapiro took and said that he feels the plan is well-intended. He added that “Two key considerations with any substantive changes must be the additional costs to taxpayers, as well as the impact on local communities where our state’s higher education institutes are located.” He also looks forward to the discussion with the Governor and fellow members of the General Assembly on the plan.
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