Community colleges want more from state budget

A day after Gov. Tom Wolf proposed an increased focus on education for the 2019-20 fiscal year, a group representing the community colleges in Pennsylvania said Wednesday that his plan does not do enough to help those schools.

Following Mr. Wolf’s 2019-20 budget address Tuesday, the Pennsylvania

Commission for Community Colleges expressed disappointment that the proposed budget did not include a funding increase for the state’s 14 community colleges.

“No increase was proposed for community colleges,” Elizabeth Bolden, president and CEO of the commission, said in a news release. “In 2017-2018, Pennsylvania community colleges trained more than 312,000 students in academic,

career and technical programs and are well-positioned to grow these programs as demand for training increases — but the colleges need funding to make it happen.”

Mr. Wolf’s proposed budget offers several education-related changes, including $8 million in grants for community college students who remain in the state for work.

“If you’re willing to put your newly acquired skills to work here in

our Commonwealth, the least we can do is help you avoid carrying around a crushing burden of student debt,” Mr. Wolf said in his address, referring to the proposed grant.

The budget also included an additional $200 million in funding for K-12 instruction in public schools, an extra $50 million for special education and another $7 million for Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities.

The four state-related universities

— the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln — would receive no boost over this year’s allocation.

Overall, Mr. Wolf’s proposed plan would increase spending by $1.4 billion, or 4.2 percent, over this year’s approved $32.7 billion budget. That, however, does not include an additional $500 million needed to fill a projected gap in the current year’s budget.