“Sen. Sanders spoke for the middle class and the working men and women across this nation, and the issues important to them,” Cuomo said Tuesday morning. “He spoke to this issue of college affordability, and was ahead of his time in doing it, and really awoke the nation to this crisis of affordability.”
If passed by the Legislature, Cuomo’s proposal — entitled the Excelsior Scholarships Program — would be the first of its kind in the nation, though other states have passed more modest community college plans.
Cuomo’s program would offer free tuition to state community colleges as well as all SUNY and CUNY colleges to New York families making up to $125,000 per year. The governor’s office estimates more than 940,000 middle class families and individuals would qualify for the program, and that it would cost $163 million per year once fully phased in.
The Excelsior Scholarship Program would close the financial gaps for students following allocations from federal Pell Grants and New York’s Tuition Assistance Program, a generous entitlement program that current provides nearly $1 billion in grants to college students. (The maximum Pell Grant allotment is currently $5,815, while the TAP program’s average award is $5,165.)
The average annual tuition at SUNY and CUNY for a bachelor’s degree is around $6,500.
Sanders’ college proposal on the presidential trail did not contain any income qualifications, though a subsequent plan he helped craft with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would have offered free tuition for families making $125,000 or less.
On the trail, Sanders — who spent a year at the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College before transferring to the University of Chicago — frequently touted CUNY’s past policy offering free tuition to residents.
“What Gov. Cuomo is proposing is a revolutionary idea for higher education,” Sanders said Tuesday. “It’s an idea that’s going to reverberate not only throughout the state of New York, but throughout this country.”
In his remarks Tuesday, Cuomo touted public education as the most important issue in American politics today, asserting that it has historically allowed for greater economic mobility. He pointed to the life story of his father, Mario Cuomo, who grew up the son of poor Italian immigrants in Queens and who later served as New York’s governor.
While Cuomo endorsed Hillary Clinton during the presidential primary process, his rhetoric was positively Sanderesque Tuesday.
“The debt is so high it’s like starting a race with an anchor tied to your leg,” he said. “Average college debt: $30,000 per student. Just think about that.”
The proposal will soon go before the New York Legislature, which has a Democratic majority in the Assembly and a small Republican majority in the Senate.
“If New York state does it this year — mark my words — state after state will follow,” Sanders said Tuesday.
