A state bill to increase grant aid to middle-income college students would ease student debt burdens and benefit the region, the presidents of three local private colleges and the head of a state association of independent schools said during a Times-Tribune editorial board meeting on Thursday.
The bill, known as the Middle Income Student Debt Reduction Act, would increase the availability of state grants for eligible students whose families earn between $80,000 and $110,000 a year, a group that is taking on the most debt for higher education but is infrequently eligible for public aid, the presidents said.
"Middle-class students are finding it more and more difficult to pay for college," said Don Francis, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania.
The bill's sponsors are seeking $36 million to be dedicated to the grants. The new funds would not reduce the grant money available to lower-income students, the presidents said.
The grants would be available to students attending any Pennsylvania postsecondary institution, including private, public and community colleges.
Marywood University President Sister Anne Munley, I.H.M., said 151 more students at the school would have been eligible for state aid last year had the proposed grants been in place.
The Rev. Kevin P. Quinn, S.J., president of the University of Scranton, said the grant program would allow between 75 and 100 more students at the school to be eligible for aid.
Often, the students are in the first generation in their family to attend college. "They're not destitute, but it's tight," he said.
Private colleges and universities increased the amount of aid to their students in recent years when parents' ability to pay for tuition suffered, the presidents said. They emphasized that making college available and affordable benefits the local and broader economy.
"If we want to lower the unemployment here and grow the economy locally, education is a very important driver of that and has to be continued," Baptist Bible College and Seminary President Jim Jeffery said.
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