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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 16, 2023 11:57 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Eric R. Nelson |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Tuition Reduction Act |
| Please join me as we take a significant step to improve how we invest in college, technical schools and expand scholarship incentives for nurses, teachers and law enforcement officers. The Tuition Reduction Act is a four-year plan to remove the University of Pittsburgh as a State Related Institution and re-direct 168 million taxpayer dollars to Pennsylvania’s Higher Education Assistance Agency- PHEAA. Using data developed with PHEAA from last session, they could expand grants to an additional 32,000 students attending technical schools, community colleges and four-year programs. We will increase grant amounts and qualifying families earning up $200,000 a year. In addition, this legislation will expand PHEAA’s existing Targeted Industry Program (PA-TIP) for high demand professions to create incentive scholarships for nurses, teachers and law enforcement careers. Historically, PA once had up to fifteen non-preferred institutions receiving dedicated line items in the budget. The time has come to reduce one more. Policy making is hard, and difficult decisions must be made as we grapple with our state’s post-secondary landscape. This legislation takes a balanced, four-year, approach to ensure stability for all existing students and develops a responsible transition for a variety of relationships including the more than 35 million dollars in state owned buildings the university currently uses. The Tuition Reduction Act is a scaled down version from last session’s College Voucher Program and an important step to reform post-secondary education in Pennsylvania. Please consider joining me in the effort to directly fund students versus institutions. |
Introduced as HB1489