State Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) this week wrote to Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities to urge them to abandon their planned tuition increases and freeze in-state tuition in light of skyrocketing inflation.
The senator noted that the Keystone State’s fiscal year 2022-23 budget allots $600 million in total to Lincoln University, Temple University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Pennsylvania State University. Those institutions are also getting $40 million in new discretionary funding from Governor Tom Wolf (D). With such generous state subsidies, Mastriano reasoned, partially public universities should make every effort to avoid putting new pressures on students and their families.
“I realize the economic forces at work have not spared higher education,” wrote the senator, who is running for Pennsylvania governor against state Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D). “Although a tuition hike offers a straightforward solution, it will cost Pennsylvania far more in the long run in lost economic opportunity. Pennsylvania’s families simply cannot afford a tuition hike in addition to the rising costs in other parts of the economy.”
A month ago, inflation in the U.S. reached a 40-year high. The impact on many students’ families, Mastriano suggested, is already too dire without higher education costs. In his letter, he cites statistics demonstrating that students at the four universities come from families with median incomes ranging from roughly $46,000 to about $112,000.
In-state tuition rates for the state-related schools are presently $17,900 (Penn State), $16,970 (Temple), $11,266 (Lincoln) and $19,679 (U of P). Penn State has multiple campuses whose students can expect to see reported tuition rises of between two percent and six percent in the 2022-23 school year.
The Philadelphia-based Temple and Chester County-based Lincoln are meanwhile increasing their respective tuition rates by about four percent. The University of Pittsburgh is increasing its in-state rate by 3.5 percent and its out-of-state tuition by 5.5 percent.
Of the four universities Mastriano addressed, only Penn State and Lincoln responded to a Pennsylvania Daily Star request for comment. Neither of them indicated they were rethinking their planned increases.
“Lincoln University’s 2022-2023 tuition increase will only apply to new students and is consistent with the other PASSHE schools,” Lincoln President Brenda Allen said in an e-mailed statement. “The University’s tuition freeze policy maintains a student’s tuition at the same level for a four-year period allowing families to better plan for educational expenses.”
Wyatt DuBois, assistant director of public relations at Penn State, only told The Daily Star that the part of the state’s allocation coming from federal stimulus funds may or may not come with stipulations regarding their use.
“While we have heard that Gov. Wolf plans to provide Penn State with approximately $12 million in one-time federal funds from the American Recovery Plan dollars provided to the state, the university has not received official written notice that it will receive these funds nor how they would be required to be used,” he said.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
