NEWS

Free SUNY tuition would increase college access, reduce debt

James Goodman
@goodman_dandc

Jahrel Holt has applied to a mix of colleges but is trying to avoid going deep into debt financing his college education.

“It would be hard for me to pay it off,” said Holt, 17, a senior at the Rochester City School District’s Edison Career and Technology High School.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s tuition-free proposal for public colleges in New York could make a big difference to Holt and many others in a state where students who borrow have ended up, on average, $32,200 in debt.

Holt has been accepted by Roberts Wesleyan College, but has yet to learn what kind of financial aid package he'll be offered. And he's waiting to hear whether he got into Buffalo State College, which is part of the State University of New York system.

The Cuomo proposal would play into his decision-making.

"My family is not wealthy," Holt said. "If free tuition goes through, Buffalo State would be my first choice."

Cuomo’s proposal — the Excelsior Scholarship program — is part of the governor’s budget package now before the state Legislature. It would apply to full-time students in the SUNY and City University of New York (CUNY) system. Free tuition would be provided to students from families making up to $125,000 a year. The eligibility ceiling would be phased in over three years, beginning at $100,000.

State Budget Director Robert Mujica said the proposal answers a simple question: “How do you help with getting more access to college and actually making it more affordable?”

The proposal, which would cost an estimated $163 million a year, has generated a good deal of debate, with its price tag and possible effect on private colleges among the concerns.

Pamela Helming

"I don't support a college tuition proposal that puts the burden on the hard-working taxpayer," said state Sen. Pamela Helming, R-Canandaigua, who is a member of the Senate Higher Education Committee and the Senate Higher Education Budget Subcommittee.

While opposing the Cuomo proposal, Helming said that college affordability needs to be addressed — and was an issue that she heard on the campaign trail last fall.

Some of the alternatives Helming wants considered are increasing the state's Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), which is available to students attending private as well as public colleges, and a greater commitment to vocational training.

Sara Goldrick-Rab

Sara Goldrick-Rab, a Temple University professor of higher education policy and sociology who has studied tuition-free programs, calls the Cuomo proposal a step in the right direction.

The current system of applying for financial aid, she said, is so complicated that it creates a lot of uncertainty that "really scares off the people with the least money."

And Goldrick-Rab said: "There is a group of people who very reasonably argue that they are deemed too rich to get financial aid but are too poor to be able to go to college. They are stuck in the middle."

Tuition-free proposals are part of a trend fueled by the cost of college and mounting student debt. These measures took shape at a national level around Vermont Sen. Bernie Sander's campaign for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president and also became part of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's platform.

Tennessee and Oregon have implemented tuition-free in a more limited way — at the community college level. The initiative has been successful enough in Tennessee that Gov. Bill Haslam, who is a Republican, has proposed extending tuition-free to adults wanting to attend these colleges. Rhode Island is considering a tuition-free proposal as well.

The Tennessee Promise, which this school year is funded by $25.3 million from the state's lottery, has resulted in more than 33,000 students enrolling in the state's community colleges and technical schools over the past two years. That has increased first-time freshman enrollment in public higher education in the state by 13 percent.

A good number — 63 percent — of the students who enrolled in the Tennessee program in fall 2015 returned for a second year and there has been a 17 percent decrease in the number of students taking out loans, according to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

Visions and concerns

Like other states, New York has long decided that paying for kindergarten through high school is a public responsibility. Billed as "Making College Tuition-Free for Middle Class New Yorkers," the Cuomo proposal extends this thinking to public colleges.

As it is, the state already provides nearly $1 billion a year in financial assistance though TAP to college students at the lower end of the economic scale. TAP — available to students attending private as well as public colleges — provides up to $5,165 a year to students of families making up to $80,000 a year.

Pell is a federal grant program that is also income-based.

Although Mujica said exceptions will be provided, students are expected to carry 15 credits a semester to qualify for a tuition-free public education — a requirement intended to improve graduation rates and further reduce student debt.

Enrollment at SUNY and CUNY, according to Mujica, is estimated to increase by 10 percent.

Some of this increase would come from students who had not previously planned to attend college. Others — lured by free-tuition — would opt for a SUNY school instead of a more expensive private college, or might transfer to a SUNY school from a private college.

The plan has stirred up vocal opposition from private colleges, with the presidents of such local schools as Nazareth College, St. John Fisher College and Roberts Wesleyan Colleges strongly opposing it. They question whether the $163 million would be enough to cover the tab, maintain that private colleges attract some of the same students in financial need as public colleges and say that the funds for tuition-free would be better spent on increasing the funds spent on TAP.

And the Commission on Independent Colleges & Universities in New York has  issued a statement saying: “These proposals will disadvantage private institutions, seriously compromise the role colleges and universities play in supporting local economic growth and, most importantly, shift choice from best fit to finances.”

Mujica has responded by saying that New York has provided more assistance for those attending private colleges than any other state except Texas and that expanding TAP would be too expensive.

He also said the tuition-free math adds up to $163 million.

With a $125,000 family income eligibility ceiling, Cuomo's proposal has the potential to help 75.7 percent of the 942,186 families with college-age students in the state. That total includes 55,747 families in the Finger Lakes region, which includes Monroe County.

Mujica crunched the numbers.

"We looked at the number of families in New York that have college-aged children with incomes below $125,000. Then we said how many of those have students in college. Then you have those with incomes below $50,000. We pulled them out because of TAP and Pell," said Mujica.

Such other factors as how many of these families send students out of the state and what percent of the total go to private colleges were also considered.

Martin Van Der Werf, associate director of editorial and postsecondary policy at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, said that the Cuomo proposal makes a “great leap” to have the tuition for most students at public colleges funded by the taxpayer. And he worries that some students who are not serious about a college education might enroll for a time — and then drop out.

"On the other hand," he went on to say, “you can argue that the college is the new high school, and if we want to have a competitive workforce and a well-trained workforce, we really have to guarantee that our students have the experience, the skills, and the credentials to compete. And that’s a public responsibility because, in the end, it’s a public good.”

All of these factors, said Van Der Werf, should be weighed in deciding on the Cuomo proposal.

Role of public funding

New York currently spends about $7.1 billion a year on higher education. But state funding only pays for a part of SUNY college's cost.

The College at Brockport, for example, has an operating budget of $66.9 million, with $17.6 million coming from the state. A big chunk — $49.3 million — is covered by tuition and fees.

Since the recession of a decade ago, annual state support for the college has been reduced by $9 million, according to Brockport officials.

This helps explain why student loan debt has more than doubled from $38.8 million in 2006 to $82 million in 2015, according to a report by the state Comptroller’s Office. The average student loan debt of $32,200 in New York as of 2015 was above the national average of $29,700.

Greece Olympia senior Marleina Monaco, who is waiting to hear whether she will be accepted at State University of New York at Buffalo, can understand why someone who doesn't use the SUNY system might not like the Cuomo proposal, but she considers it a good use of tax dollars.

Marleina Monaco

"I would know that when I have to pay taxes, I'd be paying for my college education," said Monaco.

A tuition-free option would mean a lot to Monaco because she has to finance much of her college education.

Monaco, 17, whose father puts in hardwood floors and tiles and whose mother is disabled, is determined to become a medical technician.

Holt, the Edison Tech student, has to go through the math that would provide him the best shot at the most affordable price for a career in engineering or engineering technology.

Roberts Wesleyan was his first choice, but with a tuition next fall of $29,600, it would be out of financial reach unless he gets a scholarship that covers much of the costs.

Buffalo State's tuition is $6,470, but like Roberts Wesleyan, room and board would add a good deal more.

Among Holt's other possibilities is starting at Finger Lakes Community College, which is part of the SUNY system, and transferring to a four-year college.

Holt, whose father does landscaping, has not yet heard learned from TAP and the federal assistance program Pell.

It might turn out that TAP and Pell could cover Holt's tuition, even without free tuition, but the proposal gives him and other students a clear understanding that their college education would be covered.

"Tuition-free would benefit us. Money is tight. It would give me certainty that he would attend college," said Holt's mother, Yavonna Stephenson.

Students tell of classmates who are qualified for college but don't apply because they think college is out of reach.

A 2016 Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce review of Clinton's tuition-free proposal, which Van Der Werf coauthored, found that, nationwide, about 500,000 students graduate every year with test scores in the upper half of their high school class but never go on to get a certificate or college degree.

Some supporters of the Cuomo proposal say that, by requiring students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to qualify for free tuition, the number of students going to college would increase. FAFSA tells them what kind of assistance they could receive.

TAP, however, won't help Greece Odyssey Academy senior Milagros Gonzalez this coming school year. TAP, she said, considered her application at a time her father managed a bank, but he has since lost his job with the closing of the branch. He is now a substitute teacher.

She appealed, telling a TAP official of her family's new financial situation — but did not prevail.

Gonzalez, 17, who wants to become a nurse, expects to go to The College at Brockport, which has accepted her.

Milagros Gonzalez

Without free tuition, Gonzalez said: "I would have to borrow the whole tuition."

Cuomo's proposal would also make a big difference for Natasha Bobe, a senior at the top of her class at Edison Tech who wants to pursue a career in computer engineering.

"It would help us because we can't afford to send her to college," said her stepfather, Danny Rodriguez, who with her mother, Geomaris Lopez, works at minimum wage for a commercial cleaning company.

Bobe is still waiting to hear on many of her applications, which include public and private colleges.

Natasha Bobe

“A lot of people can’t take out a loan,” added Lashawnte Prince, 16, a senior at Wilson Magnet High School.

Her father is a self-employed contractor and is already helping her older sister attend Genesee Community College.

Prince, who wants to become a doctor, plans on attending FLCC, with the help of TAP and Pell, but financing beyond community college becomes more problematic.

Lashawnte Prince

Questions of capacity

How the Cuomo proposal would affect the existing local network of colleges is one of the unknowns, but as a starting point, College at Brockport President Heidi Macpherson said: "Anything that breaks down the perception that higher education is unaffordable is a good thing."

This SUNY school already has a plan to grow by about 400 students over the next three or four years, according to David Mihalyov, spokesman for the college.

The college originally planned to reach this goal largely through enlarging its graduate and online programs, but students admitted under tuition-free would be counted as part of this 400.

Last fall, the college had 6,375 full-time and 753 part-time undergraduates, along with 345 full-time and 770 part-time graduate students.

"On the undergraduate side, we could reasonably increase by approximately 200 students based on our current space and staffing," said Mihalyov. "That's where we are right now."

Statewide, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher recently addressed what she called "unwarranted speculation from outsiders that SUNY colleges won't be able to handle what could be an influx of students."

SUNY, she said in her statement on this issue, has the capacity to absorb additional students, primarily at community colleges, where enrollment has tapered off in recent years.

And while four-year colleges have a lower ceiling for more students, the tuition-free program, Zimpher said,"does not dictate new admission standards for SUNY or CUNY."

Zimpher said that she hopes more students will seek a SUNY education.

"That is, after all, the entire point of the program," she said.

JGOODMAN@Gannett.com