Oct 2, 2002 3 min read

Here’s an irony: Top officials with the state agency that administers grants and loans for students in need of financial help are among the state’s highest paid employees. It may come as a surprise to some people that Gov. Mark Schweiker is not the highest paid individual in state government. Far from it, actually. The governor’s annual salary of $142,189 ranks only 27th on the list.

According to a study done by The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, the top 10 wage earners all have ties to education. (And none of them are teachers in your local school district, though it might seem that way.) Coming in at No. 1 is Judy Hample, who as chancellor of the State System of Higher Education earns a yearly paycheck of $275,000.

Behind Hample, in the next nine spots on the big pay list, are nine senior-level executives of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. President and CEO Michael Hershock makes $245,000 a year. Richard Willey, the chief operating officer, gets almost $215,000. Seven executive vice presidents make more than $180,500 each.

Parents with college-age children are familiar with the PHEAA. It’s the state agency that administers higher education grants and loans. It’s the agency that requires fathers and mothers to lay bare their personal finances in the hope that their sons and daughters might get some help in paying for the ever-escalating costs of college.

Two things strike us about the analysis of state government salaries. One is the rapid growth in the number of state workers earning six-figure incomes; that number has more than doubled, to well over 1,100, in just five years.

The other eye-opener is the compensation being paid to officers of the PHEAA, at a time when the amount of funding available to help students is clearly inadequate. Grants are based on financial need, but a lot of parents with demonstrated need can’t get a dime of grant money from PHEAA.

Meanwhile, according to a description of the PHEAA in “The Pennsylvania Manual,” the “revenue generated through the servicing of student loans throughout the country funds a major portion of the agency’s administrative costs.” So while PHEAA salaries may not be directly funded with tax dollars, taxpayers who avail themselves of PHEAA’s loan services are helping to make those big salaries possible.

Incomes exceeding $100,000 may not seem like a lot to those collecting them. But that’s not most of us. According to the latest census figures, 10 percent of Pennsylvania households reported annual incomes of $100,000 or more. That means 90 percent of households in the state are making less than $100,000, many of them considerably less.

Yet, thanks to those households – whether through direct taxation or some indirect means such as interest on student loans – so-called “public service” in Pennsylvania has become a lucrative career for those at the top of the food chain.