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Making the case for higher ed
Feb. 16, 2006 Assemblyman Ron Canestrari listens to William Scheuerman of UUP and Steve London of the PSC. The gaps in state funding are getting too wide to jump over. NYSUT's Alan Lubin told state lawmakers the governor's proposed spending plan shortchanges the State University of New York by some $121 million in base level cuts and the City University by $67.5 million. New York State United Teachers executive vice president said the proposed budget "transfers the burden of funding onto students and the universities themselves." Lubin, who heads the statewide union's Legislative Department, joined other higher ed leaders to testify before the joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees on Jan. 30. Lubin testified that the state's general fund has increased about 60 percent since 1991-92; in the same 15 years the cumulative increase in direct state support to SUNY was 18.2 percent. For CUNY, that increase was a scant 22.4 percent. The higher ed price index — a measure used to assess the impact of inflation on higher education institutions — would have lined up state aid at $354 million more this year. SUNY asked for $221 million. The executive budget proposes a mere $3.6 million. Steve London, first vice president of the Professional Staff Congress, representing CUNY faculty and staff, said 75 percent of the total increase provided in the executive budget is financed through tuition increases. While funding for CUNY has dropped 30 percent since 1990, tuition increased 98 percent during the same period, London said. Fifty-nine percent of its students come from households earning less than $30,000 a year. "Spending this year's state surplus on billions of dollars more in tax breaks for the wealthy is the wrong choice," said London . PSC also opposes a revived proposal to pay public colleges a premium for every student who graduates within four years at a senior college because it would skew budget allocations toward colleges with better prepared and financially able students. CC support lacking Increasing enrollment, rising energy costs, demands of technology and support for faculty are areas needing financial attention at the state's public institutions. Continuing the push to restore state funding at community colleges is Ellen Schuler Mauk, the community college rep on the NYSUT Board and president of the Faculty Association of Suffolk CC. While New York is required to fund 40 percent of the operating costs at community colleges, average state support for 2005-06 did not reach 30 percent. The governor's budget is disappointing on the heels of a "well-constructed" budget request by the SUNY chancellor and trustees, said William Scheuerman, president of United University Professions. It provided hope to members after two consecutive years in which the Legislature restored and added funds to the SUNY budget, said Scheuerman. Their dream, he said, was that the "destructive cycle of chronic underfunding, which has forced SUNY administrators to cannibalize their campuses each year to maintain their operations, might finally be over." UUP also opposes a plan to transfer SUNY hospitals (health science centers) to private, not-for-profit status, and cuts to Medicaid and other program costing the three SUNY hospitals more than $7 million, Scheuerman said. PSC and UUP join their colleagues at community colleges in seeking more full-time faculty to meet growing enrollment and retirements. The Public Higher Education Conference Board weighed in for public higher ed. Co-chairman Carl McCall testified that SUNY and CUNY "reach into every corner of the state, educating more than 630,000 students who are dependent upon SUNY and CUNY for an affordable and quality education." — Liza Frenette |
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