Four of Pennsylvania’s universities are plugging budget gaps while they await hundreds of millions of dollars in aid that has been snarled in a partisan dispute among lawmakers in a state that has one of the nation’s most abysmal records for funding higher education. Education advocates argue that even a proposed increase in aid won’t make a dent in the underfunding of Pennsylvania’s higher education. The University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln are in line to receive about $623 million, a 7% increase proposed by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro “to keep them whole as federal aid shrinks.” The universities, referred to as state-related universities, are not state owned, but receive subsidies.
