NYPIRG is a statewide, non-partisan, not-for-profit research and advocacy organization directed by college and university students who are elected from each of the 20 campuses that have a NYPIRG chapter. As a student directed organization, NYPIRG is committed to representing New York State college students’ interests in maintaining access to high quality, affordable higher education at both public and independent institutions. It is that commitment that brings us here today to share our concerns about the Governor’s proposed budget for higher education.

Compared with some of Governor Pataki’s past budget proposals, this year’s cuts to higher education seem less severe. However, after a closer look, it is evident that this year’s Executive Budget ignores the importance of higher education, and more importantly, the need to invest in students, specifically those from low-income and minority communities. In a year when the budget surplus hovers at an almost illegally high level, rather than make cuts to essential programs like HEOP, EOP, SEEK, CD, and childcare, Pataki should increase funding to these programs, decrease tuition at SUNY and CUNY, and make additional improvements to the Tuition Assistance Program.

Despite not having increased tuition in the past five years, tuition and fees at New York State’s public colleges remain absurdly high. According to new data from the U.S. Department of Education, tuition and fees at 2-year public colleges are the 5th highest, while tuition and fees at 4-year public colleges are the 14th highest in the nation, having risen by over 155% in the past decade, far outpacing inflation and growth in median family income. During the same period, average tuition and fees at New York’s 4-year private colleges increased by 84 percent, a high number, but still not as high as tuition and fees at public colleges.

With such drastic increases in tuition and fees, it is not surprising that tuition and fees pay for an increasingly higher share of services at SUNY and CUNY, mostly to make up for the lack of state funding to these agencies. In 1994-95, state funding for SUNY and CUNY totaled $3.8 billion. In 1999-2000, state funding for SUNY and CUNY totaled $4 billion, a $200 million increase or 5%. During this time, the share of tuition grew from $1.6 billion to $2.1 billion, a 31% increase. At CUNY community colleges, between 1990-91 and 1997-98, State support declined by 1.6%, while the share of tuition and fees increased by 20.9%. This imbalance for the community colleges is partially offset by a decline in support from the city. However, in the case of higher education in general, NYS spends the least amount of money out of all the 50 states per $1,000 taxable: a mere $6.

Governor Pataki’s $636.4 million allotment for the tuition assistance program represents no change in state support for the program since last year, citing rising incomes and a robust state economy as reasons for this lack of increase in funds. In other words, TAP is an entitlement program based on a sliding income scale. When the economy is good, less money is needed for TAP as students are more affluent, and thus fewer require grants at the highest award levels.

Data from the Fiscal Policy Institute paints another, not so rosy, picture. Median family income in NYS remained flat between 1989 and 1998 (the last year for which there is data), while it increased by 4.6% in the US. New York has the widest income gap between the rich and the poor of all 50 states, and also has one of the widest gaps between the rich and middle-income families in the nation (Fiscal Policy Institute). Ironically, a major factor in increasing income is a college degree. The College Board reports that bachelor’s degree recipients earn, on average, 80 percent more than their counterparts with a high school diploma. Why penalize lower income students by denying them proper financial aid and further denying them the higher education they need to move into the middle class? NYPIRG recommends that the legislature further investigate the EB explanation for the decline in TAP funding.

In addition, while we applaud the much needed improvements in last year’s budget, rising tuition and fees beckon further enhancements to TAP, including increasing the abysmal levels of graduate TAP, adding SUNY to the P/TAP program, and fully eliminating the "upper cut" penalty on 3rd- and 4th-year students. Furthermore, NYS students, on average, take out $4,357 in loans each year, the third highest amount in the nation. (Measuring Up 2000). This debt should not be the penalty for a college diploma.

Some of the EB’s biggest cuts were to opportunity programs such as EOP, HEOP, SEEK, and CD, removing $13.5 million in restorations made by the legislature last year. Cuts to these programs hurt the poorest students, and decrease access for many populations to New York State’s public and independent institutions. Similarly, $5.6 million for childcare services at SUNY and CUNY were removed in this year’s EB. Nearly 60,000 CUNY students are parents, making up 30% of the student body. Lack of or insufficient childcare services only hurt these students, and may cause them to drop out of school.

Students’ access to a quality education is also at stake. The governor’s proposed budget makes cuts to full-time faculty lines. As CUNY, SUNY, and the professional unions have attested, there have been declines in the number of full-time faculty lines over the past decade, and the ratio between part-time and full-time faculty increases. Additional full-time faculty lines are important for a high quality education; students must be able to get counseling, assistance, and attention from their professors. Part-time faculty or adjuncts, who often juggle a number of jobs at a number of campuses, simply cannot provide students with these needs. We urge the legislature to restore cuts to full-time faculty lines and to increase funding for additional lines.

To benefit students at NYS’s independent institutions, we urge the legislature to restore and increase funding for Direct Institutional Aid or Bundy Aid.

With a tremendous state surplus, reinvestment in higher education is an imperative. Therefore, NYPIRG recommends that the Assembly and Senate adopt a budget that reflects the following eight points:
1. Reduce SUNY and CUNY tuition
2. Enhance TAP:

• Allow the poorest students to have their tuition fully covered by TAP.
  
• Continue phase-in of $5000 maximum TAP.
  
• Increase funding for part-time TAP; expand program to SUNY and private colleges.
  
• Increase funding for graduate TAP.
  
• Eliminate the TAP "upper cut."

3. Increase state spending for opportunity programs.
4. Increase state spending for community colleges.
5. Increase funding for full-time faculty.
6. Increase funding for Bundy Aid.
7. Increase funding for campus-based childcare.
8. Increase base funding for CUNY and SUNY.

In addition to significant contributions to personal socio-economic welfare, higher education has a substantial impact on the state economy. In 1999, CUNY reported that, each year, New York State derives $708 million more in taxes from CUNY's 1970-1997 graduates than if these taxpayers had not earned a college degree. These same individuals spend $4.6 billion more in New York each year than they would have spent had they not earned a college degree. Increased funding to higher education is a win-win situation for the state and its residents. It only makes sense to put money back into this important investment.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify.

For more information contact Miriam Kramer