When Governor Tom Wolf delivered his annual budget address to a joint session of the House and Senate he told members that he has kept his promise to provide historic support of public education.

In his final budget address as governor, Wolf told lawmakers that "this budget builds on that strong foundation with an additional $1.9 billion to benefit students from pre-k through college."

The governor also said he will continue the transformation of higher education so students can succeed without crushing student loan debt, and offered the following proposals: 

  • $200 million for the Nellie Bly Tuition Program for students attending a PA State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) university or community college so more people can earn a degree with less debt and encourage young people to remain in Pennsylvania. 
  • $150 million in one-time federal ARPA funds for the PASSHE to support System Redesign, enhance student success, freeze tuition, and increase student aid to make college more affordable. 
  • $125 million additional investment for higher education institutions including a $75 million increase in General Funds for PASSHE. 

With such an emphasis on education, republican state Senator Dan Laughlin told Erie News Now he was surprised that the governor had removed funding for NPRC - the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College, in his budget proposal. "He zeroed out the funding for the NPRC which I was fairly surprised by that," Sen. Laughlin said.  "You know one of his big things has always been education, and even though we have a community college up in Erie now, the NPRC serves a lot of rural areas in north western Pennsylvania so I was pretty surprised to see that."