Harrisburg, PA – Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is requesting a state funding increase to enable the state’s public university system to keep tuition frozen for an eighth year.

Interim Chancellor Christopher Fiorentino told the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in February that tuition freezes help students and families afford college and ultimately benefit all of Pennsylvania.

The Butler Eagle urged the legislature to support the request:

PASSHE is seeking a state appropriation of $661.1 million, an increase of $40.3 million, or 6.5%, over the current year. The State System’s 10 public universities serve more than 80,000 students, of whom nearly 90% are from Pennsylvania.

In-state undergraduate tuition has been $7,716 per year since 2018, despite inflation. The repeated freezes are saving students nearly 25% in tuition costs – equal to a free year of college – compared to the rate if tuition had risen with inflation.

Beyond tuition freezes, the net price new students pay after financial aid to live on campus (tuition, fees, housing, food, books and other expenses) has declined over the past two years.

Read the full Butler Eagle article.

Learn more about PASSHE’s state funding request and desire to freeze tuition again.

About PASSHE
Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is the public university system of the commonwealth with a mission to provide a high-quality education at the lowest possible cost to students. The State System annually confers more than 20,000 degrees and has more than 800,000 living alumni, most of whom live in Pennsylvania. The State System universities are Cheyney, Commonwealth (Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield), East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Millersville, PennWest (California, Clarion and Edinboro), Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities of Pennsylvania.