Recent cuts from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency are expected to drastically decrease state grant funding for college students, including 39 percent of students at Waynesburg University.

Each year, when the governor requests funds for student grants, he relies on revenue service departments within PHEAA to supplement those funds, said Matthew Stokan, director of Financial Aid at Waynesburg University. Funding can often fluctuate from year to year, but to keep the amount consistent for the 2018-19 academic year, PHEAA had to come up with $101 million. This made the maximum amount a student could receive from state grants around $4,122.

“The problem was, to keep that funding approximately the same from one year to the next,” said Stokan, “They used money that was supposed to be used for [the] 19-20 school year. Approximately $50 million of that $101 million was to be used to supplement the governor’s request for the 19-20 budget. So they’ve already used up that money.”

As a result, PHEAA does not have enough money for the 2019-20 year to supplement a comparable amount. The maximum amount a student can receive from state grant funding is expected to decrease by more than $1,100.

With 505 out of about 1,300 students receiving financial assistance from PHEAA, Waynesburg University is preparing to lessen the impact on students as much as possible.

“We probably increased our institutional dollars from last year to this year by over $1 million,” Stokan said, referring to institutional scholarships like the A.B. Miller and others. “And we’ve been doing that consistently. But there’s only so much, and then it becomes fiscally irresponsible. We can’t continue doing that forever.”

Cuts in PHEAA are only a small example of the student loan problems building in the United States; which Pennsylvania is leading, with the highest average student loan debt in the nation. As grant dollars become more difficult to obtain, college students rely more heavily on loans that can create lifelong debt.

At a training conference last week, in fact, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said higher education was in “crisis” because of more than $1.5 trillion of student loan debt nationwide, held by more than 45 million borrowers.

“That’s nice to talk about that, but what lawmakers seem to forget is if you keep cutting free money out of the equation, if you keep reducing free money or not increasing grant money to needy students, whether it be federal or Pell Grant or Pennsylvania state grant, etc., what other option do they have?” Stokan said.

Douglas G. Lee, president of Waynesburg University, believes Pennsylvania legislators must rethink the amount of money allocated to the education budget, as well as how it’s used. More and more funds are allocated to state schools like Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh each year, instead of to state grants.

Despite receiving more state funding, the average amount borrowed by college students in Pennsylvania is higher at public universities, according to the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Pennsylvania, an independent lobbying group that advocates for private nonprofit higher education.

As PHEAA is a key source of funding for students at private institutions, Lee said AICUP needs to get “noisier” in pressuring legislators to allocate more funds to state grants.

“We are consistently ranked very highly for our outcomes in low cost and we are able to do this as a private institution without direct state funding,” he said. “There should be greater emphasis on the value and outcomes of higher education institutions by our leaders in Harrisburg.”

Waynesburg University is lucky, compared to most private universities, Stokan said. With a tuition that is significantly lower and a greater amount of institutional aid available, students stand a greater chance at being able to afford the cost of attendance. That is significant, he said, because, for most students, the cost is the “bottom line” in their decision to attend.

“If our students have it that way then I can only imagine what a school like Duquesne, W&J–what kind of debt are those students graduating in?” Stokan said.

Next year’s state budget will not be finalized until May, so the exact amount to be cut from PHEAA is “speculative” Stokan said. There is hope that through some strategy, the maximum grant amount will be reduced by only $500, instead of by more than $1,100. PHEAA is also looking to add a new alternative loan product to produce more revenue in future years.

In the meantime, Stokan said Waynesburg University is preparing to develop new financial aid packages for both current and prospective students who rely on PHEAA. Packages will be awarded on an “individual basis,” he said.

Lee encourages students to contact their legislators to communicate concern over the number of funds dedicated to student grants. He said he will be working with AICUP and speaking to elected representatives himself to advocate for college students.