After a years-long battle and strong opposition from a top Pennsylvania lawmaker, Erie County’s request for a brick-and-mortar community college has been approved.
The state Board of Education’s 9-6 vote followed a two-day evidentiary hearing and came three years after the county submitted its plan.
“After years of dedicated time and research and Erie County’s development of important partnerships with community leaders and educators, this is the outcome we’ve been longing for,” county executive Kathy Dahlkemper said in a statement.
“The community college will provide the tools our students need to be successful,” she said.
Supporters of the college had argued that Erie is the largest municipality in the state without a community college, and taxpayers are already paying for the 14 other colleges in the state system for years, so why shouldn’t they have one, too?
Perhaps the most vocal opponent of the plan was state Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway. He was a backer of the movement to create the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College, the region’s first postsecondary institution offering affordable community college-like two-year degrees, technical training and certificate programming.
On Thursday, Scarnati expressed disappointment with the decision.
“While I respect the board’s 9-6 decision, this does not change my feelings that the Erie community college plan is unsustainable and will be a burden on Erie taxpayers,” the senator said.
Over the past year, Scarnati has written opinion columns for the Erie Times News, explaining that he feels NPRC fills the need, and that a community college would be costly for taxpayers.
“With the funding challenges facing higher education today, and the unsustainability of many higher educational institutions trying to keep their doors open, it would be fiscally irresponsible for Pennsylvania to establish another community college,” Scarnati wrote in an opinion column for the Erie Times News several months ago.
“The NPRC model of serving multiple counties is a positive move toward future success of higher education,” the senator wrote. “NPRC is still a young institution and is actively working to deepen its roots in communities throughout Cameron, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, McKean, Potter, Venango, and Warren counties. Erie County should be working closely with the NPRC to ensure the college is establishing the curriculum that is needed to meet Erie’s workforce. Trying to circumvent the NPRC is shortsighted.”
Scarnati said that if the NPRC were not already established, maybe a community college in Erie would make sense.
