Kyle Cave
Staff Writer
The Pennsylvania State Budget has been frozen since June 30. The fight comes from a battle between the House and the Senate over transportation and education. The June 30 deadline was missed and we are now over 100 days into a frozen budget with no end in sight.
The Courier sat down with ESU’s president, Kenneth Long, about the budget impasse. President Long says that if the state budget continues to be frozen that it could have a direct impact on everyone, including students’ financial aid.
President Long says that, as of right now, most universities, including ESU, have put stopgap measures in place and are subsidizing costs so students will not see an impact on aid at this time. However, they cannot subsidize for very long.
President Long compared it to a personal bank account and dipping into savings to pay bills “if you don’t have a job, you have bills to pay, you continue to pay those using your savings, and as that depletes, it eventually runs out, and right now every school is relying on that.”
President Long says he speaks closely to legislators in both parties in the House and Senate, including Tarah Probst, Maureen Madden, and Senator Rosemary Brown, to try and influence a change when it comes to the education budget. Long says he thinks they understand the impact, but thinks they are more focused on “the health and welfare of the commonwealth.”
When asked if this budget impasse has to do with politics and political polarization, President Long says he does not believe so and understands both Democrat and Republican points on the budget not being passed, and that both sides “have really strong arguments.” When asked if he preferred one political party’s budget plan over the other, Long said “absolutely not.”
President Long says it bothers him that neither side can come to a compromise on balancing the budget and that in his 40 years of working in higher education, “he’s never not balanced a budget,” and how it’s disappointing that this wasn’t done sooner. President Long also did not blame anyone for this budget impasse and left it to the lawmakers to make that decision.
Long says that he received an email from a state senator asking to get together and discuss the possible challenges ESU could face from the budget impasse as early as this week.
The Courier asked President Long to speak on what would happen if this budget impasse lasts as long as a year and a half, and his response was “if this goes in for a year and a half, we have big problems, our bank account would be $0.” President Long said that ESU would have to cut 30% of its budget and find a way to get $40-50 million to fund electricity and technology, and acknowledged financial aid would be greatly affected, with ongoing subsidy for student costs eliminated. At the federal level, President Long was asked about the government shutdown. Long says that Pell Grants would be affected significantly if the shutdown goes on.
President Long worries that there would be a downturn in enrollment similar to the drop caused by COVID-19.
President Long says he has never seen a time when the federal and state governments cannot pass a budget at the same time.
If the impasse continues for another month, new furniture and other items for the new University Center may be affected.
On a personal level, President Long said that employees’ salaries could potentially be impacted by this budget impasse if it persists. When asked if tuition costs could see a price increase, he said he believed the tuition rate would stay the same. However, it is possible it could increase in the future.
President Long says that the school is currently not in a position where employees can’t be paid but acknowledges cuts will have to be made in the long run if this continues, but if this impasse continues for a year, there would be “massive layoffs” at ESU.
Long says taking out a loan is possible, but the university would need $4-5 million a month to pay everyone at the university.
When The Courier asked President Long if ESU has a Plan B moving forward about the budget impasse, Long stated that ESU “is already in Plan B, Plan B is using our reserves.” Long also states that “if this were to go on for a year, it would be problematic in ways we have never seen before”. Long says this is because the university would be relying solely on tuition dollars.
President Long says that he doesn’t believe things would go that far because that means K-12 districts would be affected drastically. Long says that K-12 is already being affected by free lunch programs being cut, and early start programs being cut. Long states the most vulnerable will start getting impacted “sooner and probably more severely than others.”
The Courier asked President Long if ESU was in collaboration with any other universities on this issue. President Long says that he has been in talks with colleagues at other universities such as Millersville University and West Chester University, to see if there’s anything they could do and their concerns for the future.
President Long also says as winter comes, the federal budget will not just influence education, but certain food banks, non-profit organizations will not be able to operate efficiently because of the federal budget freeze with the government shutdown.
The Courier asked President Long if he had anything to say to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle about this ongoing impasse. His response was “just give us a budget.”
As of publication of this article, it is unclear when Pennsylvania will pass a state budget and when the federal government shutdown will end. An impact on the individual is imminent if it persists.