PHEAA Sues Newspapers

Remember the news earlier this summer about the outlandish trip PHEAA (Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency) employees and State lawmakers took that cost taxpayers $135K? Well, now PHEAA is suing three Pennsylvania newspapers hoping the court will declare $885,000 worth of receipts and meeting transcripts to be trade secrets and not public record. The $885K was spent on seven retreats since 2000 and PHEAA claims revealing how they spent the money may harm "PHEAA's ability to achieve its mission of assisting Pennsylvania students to obtain low-cost higher education."

Are they kidding me? Trade Secrets? As the article points out, it sounds like PHEAA has something to hide. Maybe they haven't been spending the money wisely. Maybe there aren't any meeting records or maybe those records show that lawmakers really didn't conduct business on these retreats. I think PHEAA needs to be investigated. I think it's budget and policies need to be reviewed. What's more, this investigation needs to be conducted by someone who can be impartial and is independent - not one of the lawmakers who have participated in these cash-spilling trips.

PennLive: PHEAA Sues After Requests For Records

Tags: PHEAA, PHEAA Lawsuit, PHEAA Retreat