WASHINGTON – In a televised debate on Tuesday, two public university leaders, arguing that the current business model for higher education financing is broken, disagreed sharply with two leaders of private institutions who contended that market forces have done their part to ensure viable educational options for American students and their families.  

The four higher education leaders, including University of Maryland System Chancellor William E. Kirwan, participated in the second debate of a higher education series sponsored by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, PBS, and the Lumina Foundation. The debate was held live before a studio audience at the National Press Club in Washington. The Miller Center aired the debate live on its web site; the event will appear on PBS stations across the country later this spring.

In a white paper explaining the debate’s resolution that the “business model of higher education is broken,” Dr. David W. Breneman wrote that, two decades ago, tuition in public higher education was low because state governments provided the bulk of operating support for state colleges and universities but that, in the 1980s, state shares of university budgets began to decline. State support for public higher education institutions have continued to decline, leading to what the resolution defined as broken. Breneman is the Newton and Rita Meyers Professor in Economics of Education at the University of Virginia.

Supporting the resolution, Kirwan, a veteran leader of public universities in Ohio and Maryland, said public universities and colleges across the country are turning away students by the thousands because they do not have the state funding to support the enrollments. “States will not be able to make the investments, and we are looking at a great ramp-up of tuition,” he said.

Dr. Gail O. Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College in Long Island, N.Y., agreed. “The disinvestment in higher education has been going on for the last 15 years. We need a higher education model that creates greater funding equity from two- to four-year colleges,” she said. Taking a swipe at for-profit colleges that enroll students who have been awarded federal Pell grants, Mellow added, “We need a business model that does not create profit for shareholders.”