Dinniman: College Affordability Key to Economic Growth
Senator’s Bills on Transfer Credits, Textbooks Would Reduce Costs for College Students
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2009
CONTACT: ADAM CIRUCCI 
PHONE: 610-692-2112
acirucci@pasenate.com
State Senator Andy Dinniman said that making higher education more affordable is crucial to rebuilding the Commonwealth’s economy and ensuring a brighter future for the next generation of Pennsylvanians.
Dinniman’s comments came Thursday at the Senate Education Committee’s hearing at West Chester University on the affordability of higher education. The hearing included testimony on the financial pressures facing students and their families, the economic challenges facing college administrators, and legislative efforts to make higher education more accessible and affordable.
“The 21st Century workplace calls for highly educated, skilled workers and professionals,” Dinniman said. “The states that make higher education most affordable and accessible will be rewarded with a strong intellectual infrastructure, growing companies and high-paying jobs. That’s why in Pennsylvania college education must be affordable education.”
Dinniman, who serves as minority chairman of the Senate Education Committee, also discussed two bills that he introduced to lighten the financial load for Pennsylvania college students, their parents and taxpayers.
Senate Bill 820 would increase the number of credits students can easily and automatically transfer from less costly community colleges to Pennsylvania’s 14 colleges and universities, which include West Chester University.
Dinniman’s Senate Bill 929 would require that all Pennsylvania colleges implement policies and guidelines to minimize the cost of textbooks, with one specific requirement being schools’ establishment of textbook rental pilot programs. The legislation would also require textbook publishers to make more books available electronically.
“Today the cost of buying college textbooks can run more than a thousand dollars a semester,” Dinniman said. “We need to relieve some of that burden for students and their families.”
“Meanwhile, my transfer-credit or articulation bill, Senate Bill 820, recognizes that it makes no sense when a student has to repeat at their new college the same class they took at their community college,” Dinniman said. “It not only costs the students extra, it costs extra for the taxpayers who support higher education at the 14 state-owned colleges and universities.”
In 2006, the General Assembly passed Act 114, which required Pennsylvania community colleges and state-owned universities to agree on 30 credits - typically one year’s worth - of foundation-level courses that could be transferred between schools.
Dinniman said Senate Bill 820 builds upon the success of Act 114 by requiring these same schools to agree on another 30 credits of foundation-level classes that can be transferred easily and automatically.
Thursday’s hearing was convened by Education Committee Chairman Senator Jeff Piccola, who discussed his Senate Bill 653, which would prohibit colleges and universities that receive state funding from increasing tuition rates beyond the Consumer Price Index.
Senator Piccola said that he expects to call up all three bills, Senate Bill 929, Senate Bill 820 and Senate Bill 653, for a vote in the Education Committee later this month.
The hearing was also attended by committee members Senator Vincent Hughes, Senator Larry Farnese Jr., Senator Anthony Williams, Senator Mike Folmer, Senator Pat Browne, and Senator Robert Tomlinson, as well as state Representative Barbara McIlvaine Smith.
For more details, contact Adam Cirucci in Senator Dinniman’s office at 1-610-692-2112 or at acirucci@pasenate.com.
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