FREE COLLEGE FOR NEW YORK STATE! It’s definitely an attention-grabbing headline, no doubt one that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo definitely appreciates. Who wouldn’t love the prospect of free college? Rising tuition costs are far outpacing the increase in federal and state financial aid packages, and anxious parents across the state with children approaching their college years are increasingly nervous about how they will be able to afford their children’s college expenses. For them, any help they can get is greatly appreciated, so when they see a proposal to make college free in New York State, of course they’ll jump on board as quickly as possible.

When those same people begin to actually look at the proposal and the details and policies behind it, this is when they begin to realize that the sensational headline was just that: a sensational headline. First of all, this proposal is only to make all public 2-year and 4-year colleges free, meaning the SUNY and CUNY schools for the most part. This isn’t as big a help as people initially thought, because the cost of public college is significantly lower than the cost of private college, coming in at well under half the cost of private colleges. For those parents who thought this proposal meant their children could attend a top private college such as  Columbia University or New York University for free, they are mistaken.

Secondly, this proposal only makes the tuition free; all the other costs of attending college are exempt from this proposal. This includes the costs of a room&board, books and other school supplies, food, transportation, and even any fees associated with that particular college. Since we are discussing public colleges, their tuition is so low already (approximately $6000 per semester), that the other costs of attending college accumulate to more than the cost of tuition itself. The biggest expense being room&board, which at a minimum costs approximately double the cost of tuition at these public colleges. So for those who don’t mind attending a public college instead of a private college because it will be free, only the tuition is free; you still have to pay for everything else. Undoubtably, most will appreciate that this is one less expense they have to pay for when attending college, but ultimately, branding this proposal as being “free college” is incredibly misleading since there are still plenty of costs left outstanding.

Thirdly, free college is a proposal that one would think would be geared towards low-income families, for whom it is more difficult to support a student attending college relative to a student attending college from a middle or higher income family. Interestingly enough, this proposal grants eligibility for students coming from families with incomes of up to $125,000. This is well above the median household income of approximately $59,000 in New York, and simply does not make sense in the grand scheme of things. Should a student be denied aid just because his family is of a higher economic standing? Of course not. But shouldn’t a student coming from a low-income family have priority in receiving aid over that student from a higher income family? That would make sense logically, yes, but is not the case here. With this proposal only excluding about the top 20% of families in New York State, I find it difficult to fathom what Cuomo’s rationale was when creating such a high income bracket for eligibility.

Do I think that we should help students from lower-income families attend college? Absolutely. But this proposal is not nearly the most efficient or productive means of doing so. In my opinion, this proposal is more of a political statement for Governor Cuomo, highlighting his progressive agenda and desire to make New York the forefront of blazing new ideas and proposals in the United States. In fact, when introducing this Excelsior Scholarship in front of an audience, he actually brought out Bernie Sanders, a vocal proponent of tuition-free college, to discuss this plan in detail. There’s no doubt in my mind that Cuomo is eyeing a run for the Presidency in 2020, or at least keeping himself relevant for his re-election campaign in 2018, and this proposal is an excellent way of showing both his constituents and the people of America that he can get things done that the public wants.

As I mentioned, I am definitely in favor of helping students attend college at a price that they can afford, and I do think that making tuition free for public colleges is an excellent step in that direction. However, I take issue with the high income bracket in this proposal. Although each household’s situation is different, for the most part, I would assume that a student coming from a family making $125,000 would easily be able to pay the relatively low cost of public college, so why would they need to get money from the state for this? Ultimately, the money for this program will come directly from taxpayer dollars, and I’m not comfortable knowing that the hard-earned money I make could be going to help a well-off student attend a public college for (tuition) free. If I am paying the tax anyway, I would much rather that money go towards a student who actually needs that aid from the state, rather than to a student who could likely pay for it without significant financial hardship.

It’ll be interesting to see if this proposal actually gets passed in the form it is currently written, or whether it will undergo revisions to counteract the points I made above, or even if whether it will be rejected by the state legislature completely. I know other states must be watching this issue closely as well, particularly liberal states where progressive agendas are pushed, to see how New York handles this task and what the end result would be. In it’s current form, I don’t think I would support this proposal if asked to vote on it, but if some changes were made to better direct this proposal towards lower-income families, then I would have no problem being a proponent.