Higher ed funding debate dominates Pa. Senate hearings

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The debate over higher education funding in Pennsylvania dominated the first day of Senate Appropriations Committee hearings.

Discomfort with the deep cuts proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett was bipartisan today, as senators from both parties expressed unhappiness over them.

Democratic Sen. John Blake of Lackawanna County called the cuts the “worst economic development strategy” for Pennsylvania. Republican criticism was more muted.

Corbett’s top budget adviser told senators that funneling grants to students, rather than tax dollars to universities, may be a better way to advance higher education.

But leaders of the four “state-related” institutions— Pitt, Temple, Penn State and Lincoln — stressed how they use taxpayer money to subsidize tuition and benefit the state by bringing research money into Pennsylvania and providing services the government does not.