Are public universities adopting a little “Tea Party” attitude, as many of them are now attempting to push back on the big government control that seems to keep growing?

Bloomberg’s Michael McDonald files this report:

…The universities want more control over tuition and academic programs as they become less dependent on public subsidies. Some state systems have resisted because, without their flagships, they lose premier faculty and students as well as clout in legislatures that set funding.

Pennsylvania’s West Chester University, the fastest-growing of 14 state-owned campuses and the one with the highest SAT scores, could break away under legislation filed this year. Its departure would deepen a divide between independent ‘haves’ and tightly controlled ‘have nots’ plagued by dwindling funding and enrollment. Pennsylvania State University and three other public institutions already operate autonomously.

“We can do this better than they can,” said Robert Tomlinson, a West Chester trustee and Pennsylvania state senator who filed the bill in March. “We have a train wreck coming financially. We’ve got to do something.”

After gaining greater independence, many public universities have increased tuition, raising fears that West Chester would follow suit.

“For any university that leaves the state system, tuition and fees will likely go up — creating an added burden for students and their families,” Frank Brogan, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, said in a statement opposing the bill when it was introduced.

The independence drive is analogous to the rise in K-12 education of charter schools, which are privately run public institutions. Like charters, breakaway universities want less red tape and more freedom to experiment with academic programs. Like charters, they fuel fears about the future of public systems and whether some institutions will be left behind to wither as competition intensifies.

State support for higher education has been shrinking for years. Where public subsidies on average covered almost three-quarters of operating costs in the 1980s, the share is now closer to half and falling every year, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. To compensate, colleges keep lifting tuition, contributing to soaring student-loan debt, which topped $1.1 trillion this year.

Top universities also raise revenue by attracting higher-paying, out-of-state and foreign students while boosting alumni donations.