The chancellor of New York state’s public higher education system is asking for more funding from state lawmakers to invest in its network of college campuses.
SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and other public college presidents testified today to a Legislature budget committee. They were joined by hundreds of college students and faculty.
In his $142 billion state budget proposal, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for nearly $60 million in additional higher education spending and changes intended to make funding more dependent on performance than enrollment. The state's system of public universities, colleges and community colleges serve more than 1.3 million people a year.
Zimpher says the 64 SUNY campuses are aging and the budget for capital improvements should be tripled to $600 million.
Zimpher also asked lawmakers for $18.5 million for the state’s three teaching hospitals. That includes Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. The three hospitals’ funding levels were cut in last year’s budget.
"This cycle is due to repeat itself if our teaching hospitals do not have funding to address basic needs while their missions continue to evolve," Zimpher said.
SUNY Downstate medical college has been the most financially plagued, but Upstate spent several of the last few years operating at a loss.
The major investments in the state university system are needed to meet her goal of graduating 60,000 more students by 2020, Zimpher argued, whereas currently about 93,000 students earn diplomas each year.
Zimpher also had to defend an evaluation program for its students majoring in education and going on to become teachers. SUNY introduced a new certification exam last year, but it was quickly criticized and altered. Zimpher told state lawmakers today that they’re re-examining the teacher readiness tests.
Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, who represents Ithaca and Cortland, told Zimpher she is "very, very concerned" about the state of the evaluations. Zimpher says she doesn’t have answers yet.
"When assessments go awry, when they’re not helping us do what we want to do to measure teacher quality, those are exactly the issues on our table," she said. "We have not sorted out the solutions."
The TeachNY council is developing broad new policies focused on supporting teachers throughout their careers, from the curricula they take as students on SUNY campuses to continued training on the job. It's working with teacher and faculty unions. A report is due in June, according to Zimpher.
Seventeen of SUNY’s campuses have primary education majors. SUNY educates about a quarter of the state’s teaching corp.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.