As a teacher in the Lehigh Valley, February is one of my favorite months. Across the Valley, hundreds of working-class kids are opening acceptance letters to top universities. In February dreams come true.
At least usually.
This year, my students aren’t excited, they are worried. They are wondering how to afford ever-higher tuition prices. State House Bill 2084 could help by providing assistance to students studying in-state.
Amanda Ishaya, a Bethlehem preschool teacher and Freedom High School parent, has reasons to celebrate. In late January she sent me a picture of her daughter, Cassandra Tressler, holding a $96,000 scholarship to High Point University in North Carolina.
“It felt like our income wasn’t going to hold Cassie back from amazing things,” Ishaya said. “She worked so hard.”
And Cassie, a senior at Freedom High School, did work hard. She is one of my best students. She’s a straight A student in the top 5% of her class and works a part-time job at a grocery store. High Point was her dream school, and her work was finally paying off. But when I saw Cassie in school the next day she had tears in her eyes.
“It isn’t enough,” she said. Even with $96,000 in merit scholarships, her family still needs to come up with $180,000 over four years.
Cassie wants to be a history teacher but costs might keep her from the classroom: “I have a lot of siblings that need to get through school. I was really relying on scholarships,” she said.
Even at state schools scholarships are rarely enough to cover costs. According to Kate Shaw, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, Pennsylvania ranks 49th in the nation in college affordability Recent cuts to federal financial aid programs are limiting borrowing options. Pennsylvania families are coming up short and the state government must invest in public education in order to fill the gap. Thirty states have already taken action. Now it’s Pennsylvania’s turn.
HB 2084 would make up the shortfall between low aid and high tuition. The legislation provides “last dollar assistance” to students from households with less than $250,000 annual income. In practice that means the state would cover the cost – after scholarships and aid – for qualifying students up to the in-state tuition rate. This would give students like Cassie a realistic option.
But HB 2084 is far from secure. It was tabled during a committee hearing on Feb. 4, 2026. Pressure is needed to reintroduce the bill.
Critics of last-dollar scholarships argue that programs like HB 2084 risk subsidizing rising tuition, encouraging institutions to charge even more. But they misunderstand the pressures on higher education budgets. Tuition prices are not rising because students are receiving too much aid. In part, they are rising precisely because of declining enrollment. Fewer students means higher tuition, pricing more students out in a downward spiral.
This doesn’t just hurt students. Penn State, one of the top 10 employers in Pennsylvania, ratified the shutdown of seven satellite campuses in May, 2025. When a campus closes, communities lose revenue, jobs disappear, young talent leaves. Legislation is needed to get students on campus, but they are being forced to look for opportunities elsewhere. Some are leaving the country entirely.
Sofia Dubrovskaja graduated from Freedom High School in 2024. Now she studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Dubrovskaja committed to Smith, a top liberal arts college in Massachusetts, but was drawn abroad by low cost and great opportunities. “I found that Leiden would be more competitive. We’ve had speakers from the U.N. We have the ministry of defense a 2-minute walk away.”
A world class education in Europe can be dramatically cheaper for U.S. students.
Other high achievers are also looking abroad. Hanna Black, a current Freedom senior, is eyeing Japan for her studies.
“I can’t afford to go to school here,” Black said. “In Japan it’s way less, maybe around $10,000 a year. It gives me more security.”
To accept this state of affairs is to imply that our best kids don’t deserve the best schools. No amount of tax dollars could ever make up for the talent we are losing.
Acceptance letters should open doors not mark the moment our best students begin planning their exit.
Our students don’t need to prove that they are worth our tax dollars. Pennsylvania needs to prove to them that it is worth sticking around. Lehigh Valley citizens and lawmakers must support HB 2084 to ensure that the future is built in Pennsylvania.
If not, our kids will build it somewhere else.
This is a contributed opinion column. Max Kraft is a teacher in the Bethlehem Area School District. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com/opinions.