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The Wisconsin Technical College System Board will request a $34.1 million increase - nearly twice what the system now gets - in state-financed grant money for student financial aid, a spokeswoman for the technical schools said Monday.

Morna Foy said that during a meeting in Superior last week the board chose the larger of two possible funding requests to be made to the state Higher Educational Aids Board.

The request will be for Wisconsin Higher Education Grants. The grants, administered by the Higher Educational Aids Board, are intended for Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in the technical college system, University of Wisconsin System or tribal colleges. The grants are based on need and cannot exceed $3,000.

For each of the last three years, the technical college board has received $18.7 million for the higher education grants.

The request the board approved asks for an additional $13.4 million for 2013-'14 and an additional $20.7 million for 2014-'15.

If the request makes it through the budget process, the technical college system would receive roughly $71.5 million in student financial aid money for the 2013-'15 budget instead of the $37.4 million it received for the current two-year system budget.

Board President Mark Tyler said he understands that there isn't a lot of money available during tough economic times. He said the request is based on what is needed, but that might not be enough.

"Even if we get what we request, that will not meet the need," Tyler said.

Foy said the system's need for financial aid to support students has been growing over the last few years. For the 2005-'06 school year, the grant funding was available until early December 2005. The last two years, funding has been exhausted by early April. There were 49,000 students eligible for a grant who did not receive one for the next school year, according to statistics reviewed by the board.

"That's more people than we gave a grant to," Foy said.

The board's request will be made to the Higher Educational Aids Board. There, it will be combined with the requests of other education systems, such as the UW System. That request then goes to the governor for consideration in the biennial state budget.

Before the last biennium, the technical college board requested an additional $23.4 million over two years in funding for the grants. The aid board sent the request on, but it did not make it into the governor's proposed budget.

Despite not getting what the board requested, Foy said that financial aid was in a sense protected because it did not face the same cuts as other areas of public education.

Foy said it is worrisome for the state's workforce development to have students unable to attend the technical colleges because of financial need. She said financial aid should be thought of more as public good, rather than something that benefits one individual.

"We all benefit when our public is educated," Foy said.

The board also approved seeking a statutory change that would tie appropriations for financial aid to tuition changes. A similar proposal was considered by the Legislature in 2011 but did not pass.

In other action, the board established a search committee to find a replacement for retiring system President Dan Clancy.

Tyler will chair the committee and will be joined by three other board members, a representative of the technical college presidents, a member of the Wisconsin Technical College District Boards Association and a representative from the governor's office.

The goal is to have the new president in place by January.