College funding dilemma – should taxpayers support institutions or students? - Eric Boehm, PA Independent

Consider it the school choice debate for higher education. If the state is going to spend taxpayer dollars — hundreds of millions of them every year — should those dollars fund the institutions of higher education or the students who are paying more every year to attend those institutions? It’s a debate that some Republicans in the Pennsylvania General Assembly say the state needs to have as the budget for higher education spending gets squeezed tighter. This year, Pennsylvania plans to spend more than $500 million on the four so-called “state-related” universities — Penn State, Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln — and another $412 million on the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, a collection of 14 smaller schools scattered around the state. At the same time, the state is spending $361 million on student aid that is handled by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, or PHEAA, which oversees student grants and scholarships. So which is more effective? And does it matter? http://paindependent.com/2013/03/college-funding-dilemma-should-taxpayers-support-institutions-or-students/