State holds back grant increases

The wait is over. On July 17, Gov. Ed Rendell and the general assembly denied the proposal… The wait is over. On July 17, Gov. Ed Rendell and the general assembly denied the proposal to increase the budget for the Pennsylvania State Grant program by 5 percent. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency proposed the increase back in the spring.

Rather than increase or decrease the state grant budget, the governor decided on level funding for the Pennsylvania State Grant program. The budget for the 2007-2008 school year will be the same as the budget for 2006-2007, regardless of increase in tuition costs and living expenses.

Chuck Ardo, Rendell’s spokesperson, said the state budget is an instrument that was developed through negotiations and must consider many interests while allocating funds to different state programs. For the 2007-2008 school year, there were several competing interests for the budget. The governor and the general assembly had plans to add more funds to pre-kindergarten programs that actually needed financial assistance from the commonwealth.

“While PHEAA’s funding was not increased, the administration believes that PHEAA has the resources it can tap into to increase student aid,” said Ardo

Level funding in the state grant program will not affect Pennsylvania students who have already completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form and received award letter confirmations.

“The good news is that if [students] have received their award letters, they can feel comfortable that they will receive the amounts in those letters,” PHEAA spokesman Mike Rieber said.

The leveled amount appropriated by the state budget to the Pennsylvania State Grant program is $386.2 million for all eligible Pennsylvania students. PHEAA has added a total of $72 million from its business earnings to the state grant program. They are confident that this adjusted amount will be sufficient for the applicants who have already completed the financial aid process.

Those who will be affected by the state grant level funding are the late college applicants. PHEAA’s usual practice is to use the extra funds to support the Pennsylvania students that missed the FASFA application deadline.

“Because of the lack of an increase into the state grant program, there is a bit of a shortage to adequately fund late applicants,” Rieber said.

Since there are currently no definite plans regarding what funds PHEAA will use to support the late applicants that qualify for grants, the PHEAA Executive Committee Board of Directors will hold a meeting on Aug. 22 to determine what will happen to the late applicants.

“During that meeting, the board will consider the late applicants, and if there is a problem regarding funding, we believe it will show up at this meeting and be dealt with,” Rieber said.