Spanier urges feds to review Commonwealth's stimulus funding request

To view the president's letter to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education in its entirety, click on image above.

In a June 29 letter to the U.S. Department of Education, Penn State President Graham Spanier has urged federal officials to decline approval of the Commonwealth's application for education-related stimulus funding. The application, submitted by Gov. Ed Rendell, indicates that Pennsylvania's four state-related institutions, including Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, and Temple and Lincoln universities, are not public universities — contrary to their missions and history of state support.

President Spanier submitted the letter following the governor's recent announcement of proposed $60 million cuts in Penn State's appropriation, which includes the loss of the $20 million in federal stimulus money http://live.psu.edu/story/40339. A preliminary application for stimulus dollars that was submitted to the federal government by the state on April 24 included the state-related schools. Penn State was anticipating using stimulus money to offset an original 6 percent funding cut in the governor's proposed 2009-10 state budget. In total, the governor has now proposed an 18 percent reduction in Penn State's appropriation for 2009-2010.

In his letter, Spanier says, "By arbitrarily re-defining The Pennsylvania State University as non-public … the governor is setting a dangerous precedent that the Department of Education should address. If the department approves this application as it is written, it gives governors in every other state the ability to pick and choose which public institutions they may support with federal dollars."

To view the president's letter to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education in its entirety, go to http://live.psu.edu/fullimg/userpics/10003/Spanier_letter_to_Secretary_Duncan_SFSF.pdf To view supporting documentation of Penn State's historic standing as a public institution, go to http://live.psu.edu/fullimg/userpics/10003/Counpsel_letter_to_Spanier_PSU_public.pdf