Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Greenstein. —PHOTO BY AMANDA BERG
At Cheyney University, 25 adults are training in the areas of cybersecurity, industry application, strategic partnerships and professional development. —CHEYNEY UNIVERSITY PHOTO
The Quad Fountain at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. In July 2021, officials announced that Bloomsburg would merge with Mansfield and Lock Haven in response to financial difficulties and declining enrollment. —Submitted photo
Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Greenstein said there is a growing gap between jobs that require post-secondary education versus those who have the education for those jobs.
“Our programs are aligned with jobs, but jobs have changed,” Greenstein said during a recent Philadelphia Tribune editorial board meeting. “About 60% of Pennsylvania jobs require some form of higher education, but only 51% of adults here have it.
“That gap stretches across the most critical industries that people depend on including health care, education, and business,” he added. “Businesses will not have the workers they need and the products and services people rely on unless more middle and low income students can afford to go to college.”
The state system, which includes Bloomberg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester, is the largest producer of bachelor’s degrees in Pennsylvania with nearly 90,000 students.
Over 80% of the student body resides in Pennsylvania and 78% of graduates from Pennsylvania are working within the Commonwealth within three years after earning their degrees.
Since 2016, the number of students seeking certificates along with their degrees has increased by 70% and the number of high school students taking state system university classes has doubled.
Last year, the universities created 23 new degree programs and 60 new certificate programs to address workforce needs.
They conferred nearly 24,000 degrees and certificates in high demand industries like STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), health, business and education.
According to a study last year, state system universities contributed to $4 billion in economic impact to Pennsylvania, representing $8.30 for every dollar of state funds.
“What we’ve seen in the data, is that the earning of someone who starts at one of our schools as a low-income student, 10 years after they graduate they’re earning about the same as someone who started as a high income student,” Greenstein said.
“However, there are differences as far as 10% to 12% in salary,” he added. “If you think about the low and high income starting point are tens of thousands of dollars apart. You don’t see complete leveling up but you see a huge leveling up effect, which is exactly what you want to see in public universities.”
In order to ensure long-term sustainability of its universities, the state system is redesigning itself. Universities are working with students, faculty and communities to create innovative solutions to meet every benchmark.
At Cheyney University, 25 adults are training in the areas of cybersecurity, industry application, strategic partnerships and professional development through the university’s Workforce Enhancement Network cybersecurity program. The program started in the spring.
“What Cheyney is doing is providing a short course where you get your certificate, which will be followed by a good job that pays a good salary,” Greenstein said.
“If the students want to continue to build on their expertise in IT by taking additional classes or pursuing a degree, students will be able to do so,” he added.
Greenstein said affordability, increasing financial aid and creating multiple pathways to jobs are other areas the state system is looking to address in the near future.
“Not all jobs require a four-year degree, which is why it’s so important that there are affordable pathways through our universities,” Greenstein added.
Greenstein added that state system leaders are calling on the legislature to make an investment in their future by increasing funding.
“A 15% increase in our general fund appropriation would allow us to manage our universities, keep them as strong as they are, but also allow us to give an additional $30 million to students in financial aid,” Greenstein said. “We’ve asked for $200 million in direct student aid. The biggest challenge in higher education today is that it’s not affordable for enough people in Pennsylvania.
“It costs $6,500 or more for a Pennsylvania resident to go to one of our public schools than it would cost a New York state resident to go to an equivalent SUNY school,” he said. “Our students graduate on average with $39,000 worth of debt, $10,000 more than a SUNY student.
“We’re also asking for at least $75 million of the remaining $150 million in federal funds for the state system to continue its robust transformation,” he added. “This funding will not only help our students significantly, but it will mean more jobs and prosperous communities for years to come.”
A youth Intensive Prevention Services participant. The community-based program is offered to children and teenagers from ages 10 to 19 to improve their behaviors and prevent them from making wrong decisions.
—Gabrielle Mahler for Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services
One program offered through DHS is Intensive Prevention Services, participant above.
—photo by Gabrielle Mahler for the Philadelphia DHS
Melissa Joe with her daughter Isis. Joe is part of Parent Leaders at the Cafes, a program through DHS.
In April Philadelphia’s City Council released a report full of failures within the Department of Human Services, mainly focused on the city’s children’s welfare system.
DHS communications director Nya Sturrup told The Philadelphia Tribune that DHS was disappointed that the agency could not collaborate with City Council on the review.
“DHS remains laser-focused on supporting families,” Stirrup said. “Our diversion programs (which means families are supported to safely care for their children without DHS involvement) served 5,182 children in the fiscal year 2021.”
One program offered through DHS is Intensive Prevention Services (IPS).
The community-based program is offered to children and teenagers from ages 10 to 19 to improve their behaviors and prevent them from making bad decisions.
“Intensive Prevention Services is a community-based prevention program designed for youth who may be at risk for involvement with the juvenile justice system,” said Damon Trent, program administrator of Community Evening Resource Centers and Intensive Prevention Services. “But we also will not close our doors to any youth who wants to do something outside of hanging out on the corners or in their communities.”
According to Trent, the program is really about positive mentorship. There is a middle school and a high school cohort.
“We put different activities in front of them and different experiences in front of them,” Trent said. “That they may not be used to in the underserved community they may reside in.”
“So basically, it’s all about mentorship, life skills, positive youth development in a setting in which they can thrive with their colleagues or their young people around their age. We bring in facilitators, and I don’t want to delve too much into the nuances, but it’s a site-based programming setup and a home-based program that engages the total family. We don’t just deal with the youth, but we connect, communicate, and engage the whole family. It’s a 90-day program which will extend out to six months.”
All of the participants in the program get a customized plan focusing on self-worth, enhancing life skills, academic support and improvement in personal relationships at home and school.
According to Trent, while the target for participants in the program is 90 days to hit their goals, it can be extended if a person does not feel they are ready to phase out, need more progress, or plainly because they get attached to the staff.
“We want to provide those safe spaces in the community and not have the youth feel that they are just being ushered out of the program after 90 days,” Trent said. “You know because they build attachments with the staff. They attach themselves to mentors.”
“Whether the challenge is social, emotional, or academic, IPS is there to get in front of whatever challenge you may be dealing with at that time of your life,” he said.
Another program Trip talked about is a community evening resource centers.
Currently operating in South and Southwest Philly, Community of Compassion CDC Inc. and Diversified Community Services operate daily.
The centers provide safe spaces for young people, including enrichment activities.
“The concept is to have the safe spaces for young people,” Trent said. “Especially within this climate that they’re dealing with right now in Philadelphia, where they can get additional enriching programming during the hours between 7-9 p.m. Positive youth development again, a nice meal, and just being in front of mentors that care about their well-being. Because that’s something that’s missed out on here.”
Laura Morris oversees the prevention division with DHS. She said that people do not realize that the DHS funds many community-based programming within Philadelphia.
Morris said that many parenting programs within her division focus on physical and mental well-being.
“All of our parenting groups are evidence-based, our technical term, meaning that they’ve been studied and actually use a curriculum,” Morris said.
Morris added that they try to sway families away from physical discipline and towards areas of relationship and attachment and bonding.
“Most of the programs are pretty general about adolescent development and talk about normal ages and stages, like what to expect from a 15-year-old with testing boundaries, roles communication,” Morris said.
The work on Philadelphia City Council chambers is progressing to accommodate social distancing.
—WHYY PHOTO/Tom MacDonald
Philadelphia City Council has not returned to in-person meetings, but the Council president said he believes that time is coming soon.
The reason for the delay in restarting is a combination of supply chain issues slowing the delivery of specialized equipment, followed by problems with the equipment once the technicians received it at City Hall, Council President Darrell Clarke said.
City Council has been doing its meetings via Microsoft Teams since the pandemic shut down the city, but implementing social distancing protocols has been difficult in a council chamber that was already cramped.
“We will be going to wireless mics,” Clarke said. “All the electronics for the Council desks actually come up through the floor, the floor that has been there for a long, long time. So, we are in the process of altering that.”
The process isn’t an easy one. Technicians have to go into a crawl space below the Council chamber that isn’t high enough for people to stand up in order to work on the wiring.
The changes will also include removal of the perimeter seating in the center of the Council chamber to allow the 16 desks for Council members to be spread out. Those seats are usually occupied by staffers, those being honored with resolutions, the member of the clergy that opens the session with a blessing, and members of the news media.
Clarke said he didn’t want to make the changes, but with the size of the chamber there was no other way to make social distancing work without cutting down on the number of people who could be within the interior perimeter of the chamber. That perimeter is distinguished by an antique brass rail and swinging gates.
Clarke said he believes that even though Council remains virtual, they haven’t missed doing any of their work and in some cases are spending more time than ever in their districts dealing directly with constituent services.
“There’s a lot more than meets the eye,” Clarke said. “The other thing that people should know, and if anybody is paying attention, City Council’s members are in their offices, they’re everywhere.”
The virtual meetings have had some benefit for citizen participation. Clarke said more people were able to testify by calling into the virtual meetings instead of having to come into town. A hybrid form of testimony, with live and virtual comments could continue after Council members return to the chamber.
The work on the chamber is progressing, but slowly. Clarke said he’s hopeful they’ll be able to have an in-person session before the end of June when regular weekly meetings recess until September.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-District 33, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, addresses supporters during a campaign stop at Alfredo’s Brick Oven Pizza in Hazleton Pa., on Friday. — John Haeger/Standard-Speaker via AP
HARRISBURG — Donald Trump on Saturday endorsed Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for governor, siding with a far-right candidate who was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection and has worked with determination to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Mastriano was already leading a crowded field of contenders, and the former president’s endorsement puts him on even stronger footing heading into Tuesday’s primary.
But there are growing fears from party leaders that Mastriano, a state senator and retired U.S. Army colonel, is too extreme to beat Democrat Josh Shapiro in November’s general election and could drag down other Republicans competing in the pivotal state. That includes a U.S. Senate contest in which Trump is trying to lift his endorsed candidate to victory in a highly competitive race.
Mastriano has, for example, helped spread unsubstantiated claims from Trump and his allies that Democrats fraudulently stole the election for Joe Biden — something that Trump seized on in his endorsement statement.
“There is no one in Pennsylvania who has done more, or fought harder, for Election Integrity than State Senator Doug Mastriano,” Trump wrote. “He has revealed the Deceit, Corruption, and outright Theft of the 2020 Presidential Election, and will do something about it.”
Trump called Mastriano “a fighter like few others, and has been with me right from the beginning, and now I have an obligation to be with him.”
Besides campaigning with key figures in Trump’s circle who have spread lies about the last election, Mastriano also floated a plan to let state lawmakers wipe out that election result and make their own decision on which candidate should receive the state’s electoral votes.
As a result he was subpoenaed by the U.S. House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Mastriano has said he would take the extraordinary step of requiring voters to “re-register” to vote. “We’re going to start all over again,” he said during a debate last month.
Such a move is barred by the National Voter Registration Act and likely runs into significant protections under the federal — and possibly state — constitution and laws, constitutional law scholars say.
After the election, Mastriano boasted to supporters in online chats about his frequent talks with Trump. Mastriano organized bus trips to the U.S. Capitol for Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally just before the riot, where Mastriano was seen in footage with his wife passing through breached barricades set up by police.
Trump was torn on the endorsement decision in the governor’s race.
Some allies desperately urged him to stay out of the race or to endorse a Mastriano rival, such as Lou Barletta, a former congressman who was the party’s Trump-endorsed nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018.
Mastriano is leading the nine-person field of Republican candidates, with party officials and conservatives believing that votes for more electable establishment candidates are too splintered to head off his consolidation of far-right voters.
On Friday, Mastriano told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s online “War Room” broadcast that the Republican establishment “is panicking, I mean, literally wetting themselves” at the prospect that he will be the nominee.
In a statement Saturday, Mastriano said he was “honored” to receive Trump’s endorsement and he cited Pennsylvanians “who want their individual liberties restored, power returned to the people, and for their elected leaders to fulfill the America First — and Pennsylvania First — agenda.”
“Our grassroots supporters across Pennsylvania know that Donald Trump and I will always have their backs,” Mastriano wrote. “We are all committed to ending the era of party bosses, dark money interest groups, and flawed elections.”
Barletta has spent the past few days accumulating establishment endorsements, including from members of Congress. He has avoided criticizing Mastriano by name, other than trying to make the case that he is the most electable candidate in the primary.
On Saturday, he maintained that he could still beat Mastriano.
“I will continue making the case to the people that I am the only candidate who can unite the party and bring victory in November. I look forward to having President Trump’s endorsement Wednesday morning,” Barletta wrote.
Trump’s top focus in Pennsylvania has been the Senate primary, where his endorsed candidate, celebrity heart surgeon Mehmet Oz, is seen as vulnerable.
In many cases, rank-and-file Republican voters, conservative activists and pro-Trump hard-liners have refused to back Oz just because Trump does.
Some allies had tried to convince the former president that backing Mastriano would hurt Oz because Mastriano has closely aligned and campaigned with one of Oz’s rivals, Kathy Barnette.
But as Trump worries about Oz’s chances, endorsing Mastriano is seen as a means to protect his ego, providing a likely win if Oz ends up losing.
Republicans worry in particular that Mastriano is too toxic to win moderate voters in the heavily populated suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in November. Critics fear he will endanger down-ballot GOP candidates with a lackluster top-of-the-ticket turnout.
Still, Barletta has acknowledged there is very little in policy difference between himself and Mastriano.
Republicans have been shut out of the governor’s office in Pennsylvania since 2014 under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who is barred by term limits from running again.
