Democratic Andrew Cuomo and Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders announce free tuition in New York.
Credit: Adirondack Daily Enterprise
NEW YORK — New York will be the only state in the country to cover four-year public college tuition for residents after the program was included in the budget package approved Sunday night.
The state’s Excelsior Scholarship program will be rolled out in tiers over the next three years, starting with full coverage of four-year college tuition this fall for students whose families make less than $100,000.
The income cap will increase to $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019.
“With this budget, New York has the nation’s first accessible college program. It’s a different model,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo Saturday in a statement. “Today, college is what high school was—it should always be an option even if you can’t afford it.”
According to Cuomo’s office, the budget includes a record $7.5 billion for higher education — though that’s only a 6.3 percent increase from 2016.
An estimated 80 percent of New York State’s families with college-age kids could […]
Wonderful news.
A BA today is essentially what a high school diploma used to be, and should not be accompanied by crippling debt.
California became the mecca for creativity it was and still remains in part because of its excellent and affordable education system, before ‘conservatives’ started to make it unaffordable. Now another particularly civilized state (by American standards, anyway) is picking up that dropped ball.
I sure hope this spreads to other states. Pa. could sure use it ! I would love to see my son and his wife get a decent education.