Educators and administrators watched with anticipation, as Governor Tom Wolf announced his first bid for the Pennsylvania budget plan for 2019-2020. Amidst the rest of the dollar signs and allocations, Wolf would announce the amount to be dedicated to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which provides grants to college students in need.

To keep PHEAA grants consistent, “PHEAA would need $368 million appropriated in the budget,”  Douglas Lee, president of Waynesburg University, said. “Which would be $95 million more than what was given in last year’s budget.”

After years of financial struggles, PHEAA cut its funding drastically. During this school year, students could receive a maximum of $4,122 — but PHEAA had to dip into this year’s budget to make that possible. As a result, the most a student can get next year, unless the state government intervenes, will decrease by more than $1,100.

So now, it was up to the state government to supplement the agency and keep student grant amounts at least remotely consistent.

Come Tuesday, Wolf proposed a $36 million allocation to PHEAA, and asked that the agency come up with $58 million — which is unlikely to happen.

Many senior staff members at Waynesburg have been rallying for months to convince legislators to allocate money to PHEAA, including Lee and Dr. Shari Payne, vice president of enrollment and liaison to the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Pennsylvania, an organization that advocates for private colleges and universities.

Lee said he visited Harrisburg and personally reached out to legislators and PHEAA
officials. He met the agency’s new president, organized with the AICUP leaders and encouraged everyone he could to write a letter to their state lawmakers.

“It seems to happen every year, but I think if we’re not vigilant about it, it will slip through the cracks,” Lee said. “And so the only way to be sure that your students’ rights are protected is to be vigilant.”

Until Tuesday, however, there was little more he could do but wait to see the new budget bid.

“Even if PHEAA is ultimately able to fund the requested $58 million there still remains a $6 million shortfall that would have a negative effect on students receiving PHEAA grants in Pennsylvania,” Lee said in response.

Payne, through her work with AICUP, was planning the next steps before the bid was even announced.

For Payne, the best way to influence legislators is to put them in direct contact with the constituents who will be most affected: the students. She encouraged students to reach out to legislators themselves, and planned a trip to Harrisburg this April with a current student to lobby in person.

“When students can show the representatives and the senators how they are being personally impacted–that you’re not just a budget number, you’re a real person,” Payne said, “that’s when they start rethinking their policy.”

Payne said for students eligible for PHEAA grants, the $1,100 deduction could make an astronomical difference. Without the luxury of state grants, she said it is likely that more students will have to rely on loans to fund their education.  Despite the existence of PHEAA, Pennsylvania is already leading the country in a student loan crisis.

While Payne said Waynesburg is hardly contributing to the state’s loan levels, having one of the lowest tuition costs for a private university, she also said high prices with little institutional scholarships at state-affiliated schools like Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh contribute.

Additionally, at many schools in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, students fail to graduate in four years, adding to the overall cost of their education.

All of this is compounded by the fact that the overall cost of education is on the rise, nationally.

While PHEAA can’t fix all of this, Lee said his goal is always to advocate for the rights’ of students and preserve a program with “significant impact on the educational quality here in the state.”

“I will be discussing these issues with my colleagues on the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Board Of Directors to develop an appropriate response in light of all of these circumstances,” he said.