In Harrisburg and across the commonwealth today, there will be a lot of people paying attention to a public hearing of the joint Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, which will be considering the recommendations of an independent study of the State System of Higher Education commissioned last year by the legislature. The RAND Corporation report unveiled last week created a firestorm of criticism, much of it from within the State System and particularly from APSCUF, the faculty union.
RAND offered five proposals for dealing with the struggles of the State System, one of which is essentially following the path of reassessment the System is currently doing. However, other proposals include merging some schools, eliminating the State System and changing the status of strong schools such as IUP and West Chester from state-owned to state-related while they absorb the weaker schools. And there are two proposals that involved either placing the State System under the management of Penn State, Pitt, or Temple; or abolishing the State System and making all of the fourteen schools branch campuses of Penn State, Pitt, or Temple.
APSCUF President Ken Mash was one of the harshest critics, accusing RAND of conducting a flawed study which accepted opinions as facts without doing actual research on the issues. Interim State System Chancellor Karen Whitney was also dubious of the study’s conclusions.
The hearing today is at 11 AM. Speakers will include Senator David Argall, who sponsored the bill calling for the study to be conducted, Committee Executive Director Patricia Berger, and RAND Education’s Charles Goldman and Rita Karam.
Here is the link to today’s hearing at the State Capitol: http://www.pasenategop.com/blog/043018/
