A Philadelphia college that failed to work with a state lawmaker advocating for home-schooled students has itself been given a lesson in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

State Rep. Joseph A. Petrarca, a Democrat, believed the admissions policies of the University of the Arts placed an unfair burden on the home-schooled child of a family in his western Pennsylvania district. He and the family objected that the private college’s standards for determining whether a home-schooled student had completed a high-school-level education were stricter than the state’s.

Mr. Petrarca says he repeatedly tried to reach administrators at the college to discuss his concerns. On Monday, out of frustration, he persuaded the House to vote, 106 to 97, to deny the college its annual state-aid appropriation — about $1.2-million.

Officials at the university “found my phone number all of a sudden,” he says.

After the institution’s interim president, William Mea, agreed to meet with Mr. Petrarca to discuss his concerns, the House took the matter up again and voted, 156 to 46, to give the college the money.

Mr. Mea says he was not aware of Mr. Petrarca’s calls and the House vote to cut off his college’s funds took him by surprise. He says his college goes out of its way to recruit home-schooled students. —Peter Schmidt