Pat Cuneo: Facts, not wishful thinking, support community college
This article was originally written by Pat Cuneo and published on GoErie.com on December 13, 2016.
As the work continues to develop a solid plan for a local community college, some of the old critics of progress have begun to try to blunt the momentum. The community can't fall for this negativity, which, to put it bluntly, is not grounded in fact.
Here are a few facts about community colleges, starting with 1,108 of them serve almost half the undergraduate students in the nation, and your state tax dollars are already paying for 14 of them in all regions of Pennsylvania except our own.
More facts, according to the American Association of Community Colleges: The average age of a community college student is 29. More than a third are the first members of their families to attend college. About 58 percent are women, and 17 percent are single parents. In terms of demographics, 49 percent are white, 22 percent Hispanic and 14 percent black.
The average annual tuition and fees for a community college in 2015-16 were $3,430, compared with $9,410 for a four-year, public, in-state college. A community college's average annual revenue is composed of tuition (29.5 percent), federal dollars (14.1 percent), state dollars (29.8 percent), local dollars (18.1 percent) and other sources, including grants (8.4 percent).
Our region is poised to receive a comprehensive study and possibly up to $4 million for a community college because of the progressive thinking of the Susan Hirt Hagen Fund for Transformational Philanthropy, the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority and the Erie Community Foundation. Erie lawyer Ronald A. DiNicola, who is as respected as anyone in the region, is leading the efforts.
But what this study won't need to answer is "why" community colleges have been successful for nearly a century: They allow a local community to model vocational and academic curriculum to the needs of local employers. They provide workforce development, skills training and noncredit programs like English as a second language and certificate programs, and prepare academic students to transfer to four-year colleges.
Our duty right now, as citizens, is to patiently await this study and plan to debate its findings and recommendations. Doing anything else, especially clouding it in undeserved negativity, is just plain wrong.
• There wasn't much that Ted Junker didn't accomplish in his remarkable life, which sadly ended at age 79 on Saturday at Hershey Medical Center, where he had served as the board chairman for many years. Most knew Junker through his work as former president and chairman of the board of PNC and a longtime leading trustee at Penn State, as well as a key figure at Penn State Behrend.
But Junker was so much more than those titles. He was involved in many of the great decisions that the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority made to rejuvenate Erie's bayfront, and he also played a leading role in building Erie's downtown baseball stadium, the former Jerry Uht Park and now UPMC Park.
Junker and his family also greatly enhanced Behrend and many others with their philanthropy. Erie has lost a truly remarkable leading citizen.
• Way back when: Abraham Lincoln, known for being quick-witted, was at the top of his game when he was being challenged for a seat in Congress in 1846 by outspoken, fire-and-brimstone preacher Peter Cartwright. Cartwright, a Democrat, had accused Lincoln of being "a heathen" because the lanky Illinois lawyer didn't go to church very often. As Philip Kunhardt's illustrated biography "Lincoln" tells it, Lincoln accepted wily Cartwright's invitation to attend a prayer meeting, at which Cartwright asked everybody in the audience to stand up if they thought they were going to heaven. Then he asked everybody who felt they were destined for the opposite direction to stand. When Lincoln didn't stand up after either question, Cartwright boomed, "Just where are you going, Mr. Lincoln?" "I'm going to Congress," Lincoln replied.