Officials from New Jersey’s universities and county colleges urged lawmakers Monday to restore funding for summer tuition aid grants zeroed out in Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s first budget proposal.
Sherrill has proposed eliminating a $21 million line item that provides needs-based financial assistance for students to take summer university courses, but higher education officials on Monday warned the proposal could knock some students off the degree track.
“The last thing you want is for them to take summers off. Life starts happening, and the likelihood they’re coming back in the fall is diminished,” Anthony Iacono, president of the County College of Morris, told members of the Assembly’s budget committee. “What we want for them is to have a continuum.”
Gov. Sherrill targets state aid to public colleges in push to narrow deficit
Sherrill’s plan would zero out funding for summer tuition aid grants first introduced in fiscal year 2023. The planned cuts to the program, called TAG, are part of her push to narrow the gap between recurring state revenue and spending.
Awards under the grant program averaged about $2,200, though shifts in the program’s funding mean maximum award sizes have varied over the few years it’s existed, the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority said in written responses to questions about the budget from legislators.
Sherrill’s predecessor, Phil Murphy, proposed eliminating funding for summer tuition grants last year, but legislators restored it at a lower funding level. Students can only receive summer tuition aid grants if they also received an award in a previous term.
Mildred Mihlon, president of Felician University, urged legislators to fund the summer grants.
“This program was one of the major accomplishments over the past few years helping our students stay on track and graduate on time,” Mihlon said.
Even at $21 million, the program was only half-funded, Mihlon said. Though she acknowledged full funding, estimated at between $40 and $45 million, could be difficult given the broader fiscal constraints facing New Jersey, she urged legislators to consider raising funding to $30 million.
“Every dollar that the state provides is likely one less dollar that a student may have to borrow and allows a student to finish their degrees sooner,” she said.
Jerry Traino, acting executive director at the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, which administers the program, acknowledged the elimination of summer tuition aid grants could cause some students to “rethink their academic plan.”
The cuts were made to preserve the overall tuition aid grants program, for which Sherrill has proposed more than $530 million in funding.
“It’s a difficult decision, and we look to really protect the greatest number of students by protecting that core program,” he said.
The cut won’t affect funding for grants in the upcoming summer session. Those grants were funded in the current year’s budget because the term begins before the new fiscal year starts on July 1.
College officials argued eliminating the program — proposed budget language bars using other tuition aid grants funding to pay for summer courses — would not save the state money because economic potential is lost when students’ education is knocked off course.
“We’re constantly banging tin cups. That shouldn’t be the case at all,” said Iacono. “Even the question of summer TAG — summer TAG doesn’t cost any more in the long run than not using it, but it does increase the risk of students not graduating.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
