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Rendell addresses Tuition Relief Act during conference class with students |
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Front Page -
Front Page Story
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Written by Matthew Steffy
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Tuesday, 05 May 2009 |
This is the view that Gov. Ed Rendell had of Punxsutawney Area High School students during a conference class held Monday. Participating students were (front, from left) Franklin Stockdale, Easton Kernich, Marisa Hughes, Easton Weaver; (second row) Gage Rankin, Nathan Coulter, Marissa Beveridge, Angela Burke, Jetts Neal, Sarah Fugate, Joshua Bridge; (back row) social studies teachers Denise Brosking and Bill Vassallo. (Photo by Matthew Steffy/The Punxsutawney Spirit)
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Eleven students and three faculty members from Punxsutawney Area High School joined nine other schools and Gov. Ed Rendell for a conference class discussing the governor's proposed Tuition Relief Act.
Following a brief introduction of each participating school — Punxsutawney, Penn Wood, Norristown, Central Bucks, Spring-Ford, Central Dauphin, Armstrong, Ford City, Big Beaver Falls and Shaler School Districts — Rendell opened by explaining the program, the need for it and how it will be funded.
The Tuition Relief Act, as Rendell explained, is a program designed to make it easier for students to afford higher education.
If enacted, the plan would grant up to $7,600 in tuition and room and board assistance to students who are attending any of the 14 community colleges or 14 state-funded universities, providing that the student's parents earn less than $100,000 per year.
Rendell said that increasing the number of college graduates in Pennsylvania is key to the state's economic future.
"We live in a changing world and a changing economy," he said. "We have to ratchet up our ability to innovate, improvise and improve to have the best work force possible."
Rendell noted that the state can no longer depend on natural resources, and that the most important asset to the states economy is educated individuals.
"We need a high-tech work force in Pennsylvania," he said. "One out of four residents of Pennsylvania has a college degree. We have to do better. College is far too expensive in Pennsylvania. The threshold question is: How can I afford to go to college? If government has any value at all, we need to ensure that those people can go to college."
Rendell said funding for the program will come from legalizing existing video poker machines and taxing the revenue, suggesting that the move is expected to generate $1.1 billion.
The idea is controversial, but Rendell said he compares it to the Pennsylvania Lottery, which aids senior citizens in purchasing prescriptions and paying property taxes.
A Q&A session followed after Rendell's presentation, and Punxsy students prepared eight question the previous week.
Franklin Stockdale posed the first question, and said according to the November 2008 report to the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, a Pennsylvanian with an associate's, bachelor's or graduate degree will make less than the national average for those degrees. Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania high school graduate with no further education will make more than the national average.
"What is being done to increase the value of higher education?" Stockdale asked.
The governor responded by saying that Pennsylvania still has more than one million jobs in manufacturing, which increases the earning potential of a high school graduate, and that the state is beginning to attract new, high-paying jobs in life sciences, new energy technology and venture capitalism.
Questions were placed by all of the schools, and time allowed for only one more question from the Punxsutawney students, which was asked by Marisa Hughes.
Hughes asked if there was consideration toward using some of the increased revenue to fund the recently cut Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence, which, added Hughes, "provided outstanding low-cost learning experiences for teenagers from all income backgrounds."
To this, Rendell replied that there was no consideration to restoring the Governor's Schools.
PAHS was chosen to participate in the conference class in response to an e-mail sent by Classrooms of the Future coach Melissa Fedigan.
The students — a combination of advanced placement seniors from several elective courses — were chosen by teachers in the social studies department.
Social studies department chairperson Bill Vassallo and social studies teacher Denise Broskin, along with Fedigan, worked with the students in researching and preparing questions for the conference.
Rendell provided a Web site with budget information to be used in the research.
"This is how Classrooms of the Future were designed to work," Vassallo said. "They initiated all of the work. It was a very student-driven project. We (the teachers) really had to do very little as far as keeping them on task."
Fedigan added that the project was such a success because the students were "connecting to something in their world that they are interested in and that affects them."
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 May 2009 )
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