The recent release of an extra $55 million in student aid from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency could mean big bucks for the 150,000 or so students who currently receive aid from the organization.

The increase will make PHEAA's total budget next year about $155 million, up from $100 million this year.

Of those funds, $45 million will be put toward undergraduate student grants, and the other $10 million will help adults return to school.

PHEAA officials have denied that the funding increase is related to a recent $1 billion bid private loan company Sallie Mae made to the state asking for control of the company's grants.

However, the timing of the increase is too perfect for it to be a mere coincidence. And it's exactly the reason why the state should not allow Sallie Mae to buy PHEAA out.

Because PHEAA is non-profit, it does not answer to shareholders and it has the ability to just filter extra money it has back into the student loan program.

If Sallie Mae were to find itself with that extra cash, students would be less likely to benefit.

The profit would probably end up back in the hands of the shareholders who control the company and who absolutely do not need that money as much as students do.

A PHEAA spokesman said earlier this week that he expects the company's profits to surpass $1 billion in the next five years.

That will undoubtedly lead to big increases in what students currently receive.

If Sallie Mae had the same, there is little to absolutely no way its shareholders would allow all that profit to go to student loans, and rightfully so. Sallie Mae is for-profit; PHEAA is not.

But that's exactly why Sallie Mae should not be able to take over the company. As a for-profit, it is going to be forced to raise interest rates on student loans in situations where PHEAA would not.

At a time when tuition is rising and students pockets are emptying faster than ever -- and they are leaning on student loans more than ever -- what students need is not the takeover of a student-aid organization by one of the few competitors it has.

Students need competition between at least two loan companies, and they need a non-profit company like PHEAA that has the freedom to give its excess profit back to the students.

Hopefully Gov. Ed Rendell and the state legislature will see that, and will not decide to allow Sallie Mae to buy out PHEAA.