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DN Editorial: Is Corbett declaring war on education?

IN 1983, Johnny Carson hosted the Oscars, Michael Jackson had two hits with "Billie Jean" and "Beat It," shoulder pads were sprouting like wings from women's business suits, and Pennsylvania spent more on higher education than Gov. Corbett is proposing we spend next year.

IN 1983, Johnny Carson hosted the Oscars, Michael Jackson had two hits with "Billie Jean" and "Beat It," shoulder pads were sprouting like wings from women's business suits, and Pennsylvania spent more on higher education than Gov. Corbett is proposing we spend next year.

This week, Corbett's budget called for a stunning 50 percent decrease in state support for higher education. The 14-school system, which got about $444 million this year, would get $232 million - $3 million less than in 1983.

His budget address offered no logical justification for making this cut. He calls for those in higher ed to face up to a hard economic reality, because "the system in which you have flourished is in trouble." That trouble is never explained. Beyond a reference to higher tuition rates, his address was otherwise unenlightening.

And we need enlightenment - if not an age of it, certainly a more plausible rationale for this kind of garroting. Especially since de-investing in higher ed runs counter to everything we know in the modern world: that China and others are kicking our butts in the global economy. And President Obama isn't the only one who has recognized that higher education is the economic issue of our time, and that America's ranking of college graduates - 12th among 36 countries - is not good enough to ensure our future.

The state's approach to higher ed is different from most states'. Rather than plow its support into institutions, the state spreads its $2 billion support among the 14 state schools, four state-related institutions, (Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln); community colleges, nonstate-related institutions, and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which gives $438 million in grants and aid directly to students.

Corbett, a voucher supporter, says that higher- ed money should follow the student, too. But if he wants "the free market" and choice to transform higher ed - for which he has made no case, by the way - that would suggest he redirect education funding to the PHEAA. Instead, he's cutting money to that too. Bottom line: less money for higher-ed institutions and for students.

It's true that Corbett is faced with a gaping budget hole. It's also true that higher ed could benefit from the kind of belt-tightening that most around the state have been forced into, and that new ways of delivering education have already begun transforming the landscape.

But a budget is a choice of investments, and Corbett is saying that investing in the Marcellus Shale industry- which he refuses to tax - is a better investment than higher education. Is Corbett really saying that future growth is not in knowledge-based industries- the drivers in Philadelphia's growth and growth around the country, but in an industry whose main jobs are in construction, retail and service?

Gas-drilling jobs include a heavy concentration of truck drivers, rig workers, oil-rig laborers and service companies that can haul water, build sewers and operate heavy equipment. These are skilled and honorable careers. Most don't require a college degree.

But Corbett should be diversifying his investments, not sacrificing higher ed at the altar of drilling jobs. Or prisons . . . which Corbett is also finding money to invest in.

So, welcome back to 1983-or is it 1933? *