We might modestly improve the housing market – at least in college towns – but our higher education mills would have to take a step back.
Frazzled parents fail to keep their kids focused on education, but public schools don’t deliver anyway. College administrators believe students learn better when they stay on campus, so more dorms are built. Abandoned homes, some within eyesight of campuses, remain empty rather than filled with student roomers.
According to the Associated Press, two colleges in northwestern Pennsylvania now require more students to live on campus. They claim this is necessary to improve student performance.
Last year Allegheny College, in Meadville, opened new apartments on its private campus to house 340 additional students. Edinboro University, owned by PA taxpayers, is building a dorm complex to house more than 1,600 freshmen and sophomore students. Taxpayers will front a $115 million cost until enough students pay room charges to retire the debt, or at a minimum, guarantee a bond issue in case of a default.
In the meantime, the real estate market in the Borough of Edinboro and the City of Meadville is not much better than anywhere else in the region. The excuse that dorm debt is self-liquidating ignores the opportunity to help soften a local housing collapse.
About five years ago the then-president of Thiel College in Greenville asked the then-mayor of that Mercer County borough why the “town-gown” relationship was not as good as it could be. The Mayor replied that in the 1960s and early 70s, every spare room or empty second or third floors in Greenville homes were rented to Thiel students. (In addition, students were a source of business to downtown Greenville merchants now rendered extinct by Wal-Mart in Hempfield Township.)
The Thiel President said the best way to control drugs and alcohol was to keep all but legitimate commuters on campus. The Mayor responded the college was in the pockets of borough taxpayers, but the opposite was not true. He noted that total assessment of land and buildings in Greenville was $55 million and Thiel owned twenty percent of this, paying zero real estate taxes. Also, the College made no in lieu of tax payments to the Borough which Allegheny does to Meadville.
Too many college and university administrators and trustees obviously could give a hoot about the housing crisis. Their goal is to fill every classroom seat with paying youngsters who may or may not find a job after graduation. Higher education in America is an industry having difficulty controlling costs.
Tax supported colleges are taking big haircuts as more and more state governments fall into Republican hands. President Obama promised in his recent “State of the Union” address that he would give more Federal aid to colleges that show they can reduce costs. As often the case, this showed that neither side has a clue.
Don’t expect our government leaders to implement a solution that enjoins two separate and distinct segments of our society, even though one would spend less money and market value would improve for the second. Lobbyists would not write campaign checks for that feat.
Do expect no change or relief in PA. Gov. Corbett and lawmakers cut appropriations to state higher education. These were promptly passed on to students in the form of higher tuition and increases in room, board and a host of other fees. How else can Penn State and Pitt remain highest in tuition costs among state supported schools across the nation?
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