Governor Nikki Haley recently released her Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2012-2013. In it, she recommends that state general funds and appropriations from the state lottery for the need-based higher education Tuition Grants be funded at levels similar to last year.

Gov. Haley also recommends that the state’s merit scholarships—Palmetto Fellows, LIFE, HOPE, and Tuition Assistance—be fully funded for eligible students. In order to do this, the Governor proposes to add an additional $17.1 million in state spending.

PASCAL, the Partnership Among South Carolina’s Academic Libraries, is slated to receive $164,289 in general funds for the next fiscal year, the same amount that it received in FY 2011-2012. Gov. Haley did not include PASCAL in the Lottery’s Excess Unclaimed Prize account. Last year the General Assembly authorized up to $1.5 million for PASCAL if there was sufficient unclaimed prize money at the end of the year. The actual amount of the funding, if any, will not be known until the books close in June.

The next stop for the FY 2013 state budget is the House of Representatives. Subcommittees of the House Ways and Means Committee have already started agency hearings. On Tuesday, Earl Mayo, executive director of the Higher Education Tuition Grants Commission, appeared before the Higher Education and Cultural Affairs subcommittee. Mr. Mayo requested that the subcommittee recommend an increase of more than $3.5 million for Tuition Grants. The additional funds will help to offset normal inflationary increases plus the loss of federal LEAP and SLEAP grants which were cut in the federal budget.

Advocates for independent higher education and student financial aid still have time to make their voices heard. The full Ways and Means Committee will begin budget deliberations during the week of February 21. House floor deliberation will begin the week of March 13. Letters and telephone calls to House members in support of SCICU’s legislative priorities should be sent before these dates.

As part of its Save Student Aid! campaign, the Student Aid Alliance on November 17 delivered to members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction a statement of support for federal student aid funding signed by more than 100,000 people. The Alliance is already hearing positive feedback from a number of those members' offices. Signers include hundreds of college and university presidents, as well as thousands of students. (Note: the effort has since added more than 20,000 additional signers, and the statement of support site remains open.)

To read the full article, please click here.

We encourage those who support higher education in South Carolina to Stand Up for Student Aid by completing this on-line statement of support.

Many aspects of the federal student aid program are under attack from various Congressional committees. Not only is the House and Senate working to put together a FY 2011—2012 (which actually began under a Continuing Resolution on September 1), but a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction—also known as the Super Committee—has until Wednesday, November 23, to come up with a plan to reduce the nation’s deficit.

Early discussions involve further reductions to Pell Grants and other campus-based federal aid programs which suffered losses of close to $30 billion already this year. It is important for our elected officials in Washington to understand that a college education is an essential part of the American dream and the opportunity to go to college is a privilege that should be everyone’s right. The federal government should make sure that the lack of financial resources is never a barrier that prevents qualified students from going to college.

In 2009-2010, more than 17,000 students attending one of SCICU’s 20 member institutions received more than $69 million in federal financial aid. With household budgets stretched to the max, the loss of any amount of assistance can be devastating to a student’s ability to complete their postsecondary education.

SCICU is part of the Student Aid Alliance, a coalition of higher education organizations that support a package of proven student aid programs to help students achieve their higher education goals without excessive debt. The Alliance’s on-line petition has attracted over 50,000 signatures in a very short time.

In addition to the petition, the Student Aid Alliance has a Fall 2011 Student Action Toolkit to help guide more extensive and complete advocacy campaigns.