Funding for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education was the subject of a hearing in Harrisburg earlier this week.
PASSHE Chairman Dan Greenstein provided an update on the merger of six schools across the state—including Clarion, California, and Edinboro.
He says the system overall needs $550 million in funding in order to freeze tuition and help those schools get on better financial track.
“In terms of integrating universities, at the $550 million the northeast is back in the black by 2023. And in the west (Clarion, California, and Edinboro) is reducing its operating deficit to $6 million by 2025,” Greenstein said.
Greenstein also said with the growing workforce shortage in the state, it’s important to put the schools on better financial grounding in order to promote Pennsylvania’s economic growth.
“We have to add in order to serve to the state’s workforce needs, another 2,000 Bachelor of Arts per year and 1,200 Master degrees per year. and in order to do that, we obviously need to operate effectively in programs of study which are relevant to the economic needs of the state. But, we also need to lower the costs of tuition.