PHILADELPHIA(KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania’s state-related universities remain in limbo amid the state budget impasse as families wait to learn if stalled talks in Harrisburg will mean a tuition hike.
The bill that would provide $623 million to Penn State University, Temple University, University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University has twice failed to get the required two-thirds majority in the Pennsylvania House.
All Democrats in the House voted in favor of the funding which the universities say allows them to offer a lower in-state tuition rate. Most House Republicans who voted against it, have pointed to a number of factors including wanting the universities to commit to tuition freezes.
Tom Harnish with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association says locking tuition rates can be difficult amid larger economic forces.
“Universities right now certainly are struggling with declining enrollment in some states. But as well as inflation,” he said, pointing to rising salaries and costs of benefits, along with other supplies.
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House Republicans who voted against it also say the universities lack transparency and should be subject to the state’s right-to-know laws.
Harnish says Pennsylvania is a bit of an outlier compared to the rest of the nation.
“That's fairly unique to Pennsylvania. The whole ‘state-related’ concept, that public-private hybrid is really a feature of Pennsylvania higher education. And I haven't seen that in many other states,” said Harnish.
Penn State is scheduled to vote on tuition rates this week.
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Last week, Temple University voted to raise tuition by more than 4%, putting in-state tuition at just shy of $18,000 a year.
Temple’s acting president JoAnne Epps says declining enrollment is a challenge for many schools across the country.
“We all face significant enrollment headwinds as we go forward over the next several years,” she said.
Temple says it’s kept tuition flat in two of the past four years and has made more than $170 million in budget cuts since 2021.
The House isn’t due back until September, though there is still significant housekeeping to take care of to finish the 2023-24 budget that was due June 30.
Negotiations fell apart as House Democrats balked at a private school voucher program passed by the GOP-led State Senate and supported by Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The governor pledged to use his line-item veto power to kill the voucher bill when it threatened to derail the larger budget agreement, which also includes historic new investment in public schools.
Republican leaders say they won’t move needed code bills to finish the budget if Shapiro kills the voucher plan.
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