Le Moyne president: Collaboration is the key to changing higher education (Commentary)

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Linda LeMura, Le Moyne College's 14th president, speaks at the college's 66th Commencement, May 22, 2106.

(Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com)

Linda LeMura is the 14th president of Le Moyne College, in Syracuse.

By Linda LeMura | Special to Syracuse.com

In his letter to the citizens of Central New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo asserted that his "first-in-the-nation free college program will fuel growth and opportunity across Central New York." I commend the governor for his efforts to make higher education more affordable. I must, however, respectfully disagree with his assertion that the Excelsior Scholarship will fuel economic growth. A free education for some may mean a poor education for many. In Central New York, this plan will inevitably result in the diminution of good paying, private sector jobs, an economic consequence that no government policy should drive.

As a first-generation college student myself, I am intimately aware of how a rigorous education can change a life. It changed mine. As the president of a private college and as a former State University of Pennsylvania professor, I have not only studied the business models of higher education, both public and private, I have also worked with and in them. Finally, as a native New Yorker, and more importantly as a mother, I want to preserve and nurture a transformative education for all children in New York state, no matter what or where they choose to study and what resources they need to succeed.

Cuomo's initiative attempts to lower tuition without addressing the cost of higher education, which means that while it will solve problems for some students in the short term, it will do little to reduce the cost of teaching and inspiring the 21st century workforce. The costs of higher education in the United States can be explained by several factors: the recruitment of top talent; increased reliance on technology; research and development costs; the intricate regulation and compliance costs mandated by the state and federal governments; spiraling insurance and health care expenses; increasing utility costs; student services such as mental health and career counseling; and the costs of maintaining a modern infrastructure, particularly for technology-rich science and business spaces.

The nature of these costs does not differ appreciably between independent and public institutions. What does differ is who pays the bills. In the case of public institutions, it is New York state's taxpayers who are being asked to assume approximately $7 billion in expenses. The governor's plan, though well-intentioned, does not address the underlying, fundamental costs of an undergraduate education. Here is why:

In "A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary," Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan described a phenomenon known as "Baumol's Law," which affects selected sectors of the economy. The principle posits that in certain "high-touch" economic sectors that rely upon highly trained professionals, productivity does not keep pace with the rising cost of labor, and thus costs associated with those sectors tend to increase at a faster pace. For example, should we pay cardiologists more if they perform open-heart surgery faster, without regard for the health consequences of the patient? No, nor should we pay professors more to run laboratory experiments in organic chemistry classes faster and without regard for the learning outcomes. The senator argued that certain indispensable sectors of the economy, like higher education and healthcare, which cannot fully benefit from cost reductions resulting from productivity gains, warrant government support to ensure quality services remain for all, regardless of the ability to pay. Moynihan's intensive study of economic policy led him to the conclusion that supporting both public and private educational institutions offered the best possible solutions that would save the taxpayer money, enhance graduation and job placement outcomes, and foster collaboration, rather than pitting one sector against the other.

In its current form, the governor's Excelsior Scholarship does not inspire excellence in education. Instead, it threatens one of the Empire State's most precious assets, the public-private higher education ecosystem, and it misses a crucial opportunity to demonstrate how a real public-private partnership could address costs and increase academic outcomes.

The New York taxpayer will absorb the inevitable escalating costs that are fundamental to any labor-intensive sector of the economy. The unintended consequences of the Excelsior Scholarship are best illustrated by a recent Brookings Institution analysis entitled "Lessons from the end of free college in England." The authors reported that "concerns about the declining academic quality" ultimately led to the end of free college in 1998. Their research concluded that "a free college system actually stands in the way of increasing quantity, quality and equity in higher education."

The future of a sustainable business model must involve strategic collaboration within the public-private educational ecosystem in New York. According to "Strength in numbers," a 2016 report by Parthenon-EY, we are now in a new era in higher education that "demands a significant shift in strategy for institutions around the idea of collaboration and the development of much deeper partnerships than higher education has ever seen before."

I am committed to working on concrete, collaborative solutions to tackle the real and complex issues around higher education affordability. In the meantime, we need inspired government policy that encourages collaboration while treating students equally, so that they may attend the college that best meets their needs. This sort of smart public policy is good for both students and the taxpayers.

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