Penn State recently made the difficult -- but necessary -- decision to make cutbacks in the College of Agricultural Sciences' cooperative extension outreach program.

The university eliminated 35 county-based educator positions in the program.

The program, which began more than 90 years ago, helps farmers and businesses in Pennsylvania.

We trust that the university explored its options carefully before making the difficult decision to lay off employees and reduce extension services.

While layoffs are never an attractive choice, Penn State had no choice but to cut back on this program.

This program is directly funded by the state, and the state's dwindling appropriation to Penn State left the school with no choice but to cut jobs and programs.

Ideally, the state's budget would have allocated enough money to the program and no cuts would have been necessary.

State legislators should aim to restore the program in next year's budget or as soon as fiscally possible.

They should also remember this painful cut and come up with ways to stop the ever-decreasing financial assistance from the state, before similar programs also need to be scaled down.

Part of Penn State's mission as a land-grant institution is to give back to the state, and it's the state's responsibility to subsidize such outreach initiatives as well as in-state tuition.

Extension programs are one major way that residents around the state can benefit from the work of the university, even if no one in their family is a student at this school.

But when the state doesn't fully honor its obligations, neither can Penn State.

When politicians begin to give Penn State the financial help the university needs and deserves, the university should restore the cooperative extension program to its original strength.

Until then, when faced with the difficult decision of cutting services to students or cutting services to the state, Penn State is going to have to continue to place students first.