Proposed State Budget Means Higher Tuition For Bucks Students

Nobody said education was cheap, but it certainly won't be any cheaper for community college students next Fall.

Bucks County Community College announced last week that due to the recently proposed state budget, tuition for in-county students will increase by over 5 percent.

"The Governor released his budget for the coming year with cuts to higher education," School President Dr. James Linksz said in a press release issued in the beginning of this month.

Linksz added, "Community colleges fared somewhat better than other sectors, but were reduced to 2008-9 funding levels despite the increase of over 32,000 students statewide in the past three years. For Bucks, that means an added cut of $2 million which has to be dealt with in 2011-12."

Bucks' Board of Trustees approved the tuition increase during a special meeting on March 31. The new tuition rate will bring the cost-per-credit for in-county students to $111.

The $6 increase may be small, but it quickly adds up: For a full time student taking 12 credits per semester, a full academic year will cost almost $3,400 -- an increase of $240.

"These cuts are possibly going to affect my life. Affect whether I'll be able to continue my education -- affect whether I'll be able to actually get a good job later in life," said 19-year-old Bucks Freshman, Brittany Shellbaker.

Shellbaker said she is lucky, her uncle has paid the bulk of her tuition thus far.

"(If he didn't pay for her tuition) … I don't know if I'd be able to afford it. Definitely not after this," Shellbaker said.

Shellbaker believes that the tuition increase will make it more difficult for people to attend the college.

"We are trying to go and get a better education. We should be given a chance," Shellbaker said.

The cuts to higher education were one of the many seen in Gov. Corbett's $63.6 billion proposed state budget -- totaling almost $3 billion in spending reduction for 2011.

In a March press release issued by the Office of the Governor, Corbett said that tough decisions needed to be made to maintain a balance budget.

Entering the office in January, Gov. Corbett faced a state deficit that exceeded $4 billion.

"In past years, we have seen one-time gimmicks and sleights of hand. Harrisburg raided the Rainy Day fund. It’s gone… and it’s still raining. They applied federal stimulus money to the operating budget. The only thing it stimulated was the appetite to spend more," Corbett said in the press release.

Basic education also saw the squeeze from Harrisburg. Bristol Township School District Superintendent Sam Lee said that the budget's reduction of grants, charter school reimbursement funds and earmarked education subsidies will lose the Bristol School District around $4 million in funding.

"We are now weighing a myriad of options to reduce cost while insuring that we maintain the programs that have proven to be great successes," Lee said.

Lee said one program that would be in danger is the township's full-day kindergarten education.

While many programs saw Corbett's trimmers, higher education saw the most drastic funding reduction. Higher education's state allocation went from $1.8 billion in 2010, to $1.3 billion in Corbett's proposed budget -- a 32 percent cut in funding.

Assistant Director of Public Relations for Bucks Jean Dolan said the college maintains an attendance of just under 10,000 students in three campuses including Lower Bucks Campus in Bristol Township.