"In a direct affront to President Barack Obama’s recent call for American universities to lower tuition costs, Gov. Tom Corbett proposed a second year of steep cuts in aid to Pennsylvania’s universities. The second-year governor then employed the high art of political one-upmanship by unveiling a new panel tasked with meeting the same higher-education objective as stated by the president. Corbett’s proposed 2012-13 budget seeks about 30 percent in funding cuts to Penn State, Temple and Pittsburgh universities. Corbett deftly avoided mentioning his proposed higher-education cuts in Tuesday’s budget address. Instead, he tempered his proposed reductions with the creation of a panel tasked with finding ways to make higher education more accessible and affordable. The deadline for the study group to report back to Corbett is Nov. 15, nine days after the nation chooses its president."