In response to Governor Ed Rendell's Tuition Relief Act, Republican state Senator Jeffrey Piccola proposed an alternative plan, which cuts state funds to Penn by $15.5 million.
Unlike Rendell's plan, which advocates putting legal video poker machines in bars around the state, Piccola's Affordability, Accountability, and Choice in Higher Education Act would make money by reducing funding for several dozen museums and universities around the state.
As chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Piccola created a plan that recommends cutting parts of state spending to create a pool of $145 million.
This could then be added to the $407 million in tuition grants and loans currently handed out by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.
The new proposal pledges to provide financial assistance to 25,000 additional students attending college in Pennsylvania, as well as increase funding for community colleges, place caps on tuition increases and instill other accountability measurements.
Piccola's plan would help students through existing need-based programs, so they could use the grants at the college of their choice.
Rendell's proposal, on the other hand, limits students to the State System of Higher Education or community colleges.
"I believe that we already have a vibrant network of colleges and universities throughout our commonwealth," Piccola said in a press release. "Our marketplace works; therefore, students and their families should have choice and not be pigeonholed like Rendell's plan."
Piccola's proposal redistributes a variety of funds in the budget to support his suggested program, explained Jeffrey Cooper, vice president of the Penn's Office of Government and Community Affairs.
"We think the goals in these plans are admirable," he wrote in an e-mail. "But it is unfortunate that Sen. Piccola seeks to benefit one group of Pennsylvania students at the expense of others."
