Universities In Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Cuts Schools, Universities With $27 Billion Budget

Pennsylvania’s Republican Governor Tom Corbett signed a $27 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins tomorrow, beating a midnight deadline.

The plan Corbett enacted today cuts spending by 4 percent from the previous year. It passed the House 109-92 late yesterday, a day after the Senate approved it.

The general-fund budget, which doesn’t increase taxes, cuts primary education aid by about 8.6 percent and reduces spending on the state’s 14 universities by about 18 percent.

Pennsylvania is among 42 states and the District of Columbia that initially faced combined 2012 budget gaps of $103 billion, and it’s the fourth year in a row of budget-cutting, according to the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit group that focuses on issues affecting lower-income Americans.

Republican Representative William Adolph of Springfield, head of the Appropriations Committee, said it was the third time in 40 years that the Pennsylvania Assembly had a spending plan smaller than the previous year’s.

The state remains the only major producer of natural gas that does not require money from drillers. Several proposals to implement an extraction tax or fee, including that of Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, were not voted.

Corbett said he would veto any tax on natural gas drilling.

To contact the reporter on this story: Romy Varghese at rvarghese8@bloomberg.net in Harrisburg.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net.

Pennsylvania's state-supported universities take a funding cut ...

It’s reductions across the board for state-funded universities in this agreed-to budget although not as deep as the 50 percent cuts included in Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget proposal.

The 14 state universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education will receive 82 percent of the funding they got this year. Penn State, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln universities will receive 81 percent of the funding they received. All together, these schools will receive $927.6 million.

Community colleges will receive nearly $260 million, a 9 percent cut.

State funding for the college grant program is cut by 2 percent, to $381 million, but the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency is supplementing that with $50 million of its earnings. This allows for the maximum grant award to rise by $768, to $4,309, and for 15,000 additional students to get grants.

Leaders of the state-funded colleges pledged to keep tuition increases low and not ask students to cover the entire loss of state aid. And while they don’t like getting a funding cut, they are grateful the cuts were softened through the budget-making process and hope state revenues grow to allow some funding restoration next year.

College tuition has risen much faster than the rate of inflation. It's about freaking time they control their wasteful spending and stop passing it on to the students!

"While some recent improvements in federal financial aid have reduced the pain of skyrocketing tuition prices, the total cost of a year at a typical public university campus, which includes dorm accommodations and cafeteria meal plan charges, is still rising faster than regular inflation and average incomes.

A report issued by the College Board in late October documented how standard dorm and meal plan contract prices have been rising faster than inflation for more than a decade.

The figures are in 2010 dollars. In other words, in the fall of 2000, the average public university billed students about $4,900 for half of a standard double dorm room and a full meal plan for the academic year. But because of inflation, that amount has the buying power of $6,220 in 2010.

All figures in this chart account for standard inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

In addition to tuition, fees, room and board, students must also budget for books, travel to and from campus, and miscellaneous living expenses such as laundry. The College Board estimates those extras cost the average student $4,200 for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Annual report of the provost to the board of trustees

The Alumni register of the University of Pennsylvania

Report of the Provost

Telecourses in colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, data-base for implementing telecourses at California University of Pennsylvania

Colleges and universities in Pennsylvania