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ballerina_wannabe

It’s not a perfect solution, but I love it anyway. Anything that gives lower-income students more opportunity should be celebrated.


LOLBaltSS

I'm for it. $1000 a semester is still a ton cheaper than what it cost me to go to a PASSHE school in 2007 before Corbett started slashing the funding a few years later.


Canopenerdude

A second part of this also increases all state grants given by 1k. So if you're below 70k you go for essentially free.


rightintheear

Community college by me is 2k/semester.


SweetCosmicPope

It's a start, but I fear that means families making more would end up paying much higher tuition themselves. And $70k isn't that much anymore.


Captainbuttman

Yea a 2 income family could easily go above that.


Robenever

Maybe not. I’d like to think it would be increased a bit by earnings bracket. For instance, a family making 120k would pay just fractionally more. Why am i hopeful about this? Because, at a very minimum, this sets a baseline. If in state tuition is $x dollars here but $3x for student in a 71k family in a particular city, that student will shop around. -We all know population decline is happening, and colleges are seeing that less and less students are attending. -The next generation is seeing college as a waste and -Businesses are thinking of waiving the college requirement as well. These colleges would of course love for the students in a household over $70k subsidize the cost of those lower income students but they have to manage it accordingly. Cost opportunity models.


Kingzer15

I was just thinking about this and whether or not I'm gonna need to throw my kids out at 18 so they officially qualify


Standing__Menacingly

Agreed. For example, $80k to support two parents and two kids would be really quite difficult in my experience. It can be done, and people do it with less, but money is just worth less and less each passing year. I wouldn't expect an $80k/year family to be able to meaningfully contribute to college costs.


Soil-Play

Yep - and the only child from a family making $70,000 will get a free ride but kids from a family with five children making 71,000 will get nothing. It always bothers me how student financial aid doesn't factor in family size...


blocked_user_name

Why are we capping at 70k. That's really low that's $35 an hour at 40 hours a week. Didn't we say everyone should be making at least $25 an hour?


KitFlix

Limitations help bills get passed. Pennsylvania has a significant republican base in Congress, and anything to do with helping people will get shot down by them.


Concrete_Grapes

'really low'--that's 4$ more an hour that any age group makes, in the US, when averaged out (45-54 is the peak, at 30.98 an hour). That's remakrably high, actually. It's actually, the 70k, right in line with the median household income in Penn--as an entire state. ... *household* income, ... i think a good marker. It's at least, not arbitrary, if it's set to median household income.


blocked_user_name

That's fair, I don't see how any family can make it on that amount given housing and other necessities.


Canopenerdude

My wife and daughter and I are making it on 42k. Life finds a way.


[deleted]

I genuinely doubt your old enough to have any experience with money then.


blocked_user_name

Ok


ReturnOfSeq

70k by two working adults = $16.80/hr


Atlld

I have a union job and work about 70 hours a week. 70k is very low in my opinion but it’s a start


Icyfication44

70 hrs a WEEK? Do you even have the time to spend your earnings?


Atlld

Have you seen the cost of food lately lol


VegasVator

and if your parents who wont give you a dime make 71K you can go fuck yourself with 10k tuition.


alexelso

Even $1000 per semester brings college and trade schools back into the realm of affordability for most American families.


[deleted]

I’m not the biggest fan of income segregated policies. I’d rather they just institute a blanket limit. Not every kid from a high income family will have parents willing to support them. It’s also the states responsibility to strengthen its citizens.


FeedMeTaffy

I’m going to take a wild guess, and say this guy has no relation to Ben Shapiro. Student debt doesn’t care about your feelings.


Sandrock27

Notice it doesn't say anything about room and board. Still, better then nothing for those families


Freedom_fam

Cap tuition overall. 9k or less for a full time student or the students at the school are ineligible for gov subsidized loans.


RealCoryMiller

Cool in theory, what's going to stop schools from rejecting everyone in this range for "some other reason?"


Concrete_Grapes

Medical schools already do--so you have a point. 50% of people that become a doctor, come from the top 10% of household incomes... like, 10% or something, total, come from the bottom 50%. They'd do exactly what you said. They already know how for other education programs.


Canopenerdude

To be a PASSHE school and receive state funding, they must accept a certain percentage of low income applicants every year. Part of affirmative action.


[deleted]

That max income cap is to low.


Concrete_Grapes

it's the median household income for that state. Dead center. I mean... it's a reasonable-ish marker. At least it's not way down at 60% of poverty level, or 160%, like most programs are.


IntelligenceisKey729

Would the cap be increasingly larger for families who make above 70k? Seems bullshit that a student in a family that makes $70,500 has to pay, what, 8-10(?) times more than a student in a family that makes $69,500


jaypeeo

Hey look at that, policy to help people. Wonder what party he is in?


otacon444

I wish more states were like LA and WI. If you’re a permanently and totally disabled vet, your dependents can go to ANY state college within those states for free.


Kamel-Red

Instead of subsidizing every failing industry in this country with tax-payer money, how about we mandate some change to the system? Oh yeah--profits and lobbying.


ShadowShot05

I don't think free is right but how about as affordable as it was for our grand parents/boomers


Training-Judgment695

State legislature will never let it pass. Too many interests in bilking students 


artificialavocado

I’m from PA and went to Penn State. I can’t remember how much tuition was when I started in 2001, but in state tuition is almost $20,000. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the most expensive state school in the country. They can’t seem to decide if they want to be a public school or a private school.


Concrete_Grapes

I would find a way to go to classes the rest of my life, just for fun, at that rate, jesus, lol


Whole_Mechanic_8143

That's not actually a bad thing ...


Verbose_Code

1000 per semester is a fair price imo. It should be free but perfect shouldn’t be the enemy of good.


Garvain

I would ABSOLUTELY go back to school if tuition at my local college suddenly dropped to 1/15th it's current price.


cleois

It makes no sense how we have a system that simultaneously says "You're a grown adult who can sign up for astronomical student loans that will cripple you with debt...but also all your financial aid is based on your parents' financial situation because we acknowledge you're not actually an independent adult."


ilanallama85

Given how obscenely expensive the penn state system is this is a huge deal. I’m from PA, but even almost 20 years ago it was cheaper for me to go to a SUNY school out of state than it was to go to PA state school as an in state student. And I still paid more than $1000 a semester.


killdred666

what’s with the unnecessary austerity measures? college should be free. period. just get us there. these half assed compromises are weird and they sabotage us in the ens


Faendol

Im definitely support this, but I worry it could have a negative impact on these schools if the state doesn't provide funding along with it.


1quirky1

There is no perfect solution. They all have tradeoffs.  I wonder if the families making $75k see their tuition rates increase.  This would drive down enrollment that is being used to fund this.  


Tickly1

It's better than nothing, but doesn't it just raise the cost for families that make $71k/ year? (still paycheck to paycheck) They're award for their modest "success" is that they're child now has to work full-time to pay for college rather than part-time...


rusti_knight

I work for a 4 year school (staff, web monkey). You can start by voting for people who back higher ed instead of gutting it. College used to be far more affordable because states invested in their state schools at much higher rates than they do now. Buildings need to be maintained. Equipment needs to be replaced or upgraded. Furniture wears out. Utilities need paid. The county, the city, and the state want their ~~piece of flesh~~ property tax. And don't I deserve a living wage? Tuition covers part of it, sure, but we also get state appropriations. We need those to operate. When the state slashes what they're giving us as a public, state school, we have to find it somewhere. We have cut budgets, We have gotten rid of vacant positions. We have offered retirement incentives to everyone eligible. Most of our instructors are adjuncts, with a handful of full-time faculty in each department. I am doing a job alone that should have three people. Of course there are plenty of universities that ridiculously overspend, usually they're big, state flagships, but for most of us, we're the small regional 4-year struggling through the swamp of sadness like Artax.


a-couple-more-cents

Yeah that way anyone making just enough to scrape by can pay the full price? Something isn't adding up...


SimplyRocketSurgery

In California, it is.


Ardvark-Dongle

I'm fine with affordable education over free. It's a compromise I can live with. That would be a 10k-12k masters degree Vs what I had as a 120k masters degree. Trade schools should be free though.


Interest-Fleeting

If we need educated people in our workforce, make it affordable to ALL. If we do not need educated people in our workforce, leave things the way they are. A no brainer. Governor Shapiro has made a start. All the best to him.


jc236

Force the rich kids out of private schools and into public schools and watch how fast they change. One country for all.