Clinton: Cuomo's NY tuition-free college plan will 'send a message of hope' to families

[ehrnst]

Hillary Clinton joins Gov. Cuomo at ceremonial bill signing of N.Y.’s new free tuition program

Before signing a plan to provide free tuition at New York's public colleges and universities, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature measure received a ringing endorsement from the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nominee.

Speaking at LaGuardia Community College in Queens Wednesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lauded Cuomo for taking what was being discussed on the presidential campaign trail last year and adopting it at the state level.

Clinton, who dueled with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary, proposed providing tuition-free education at four-year public colleges and universities for students whose families earn no more than $125,000 a year.

While Clinton lost the presidential election and hopes have dimmed for any significant reforms to address college affordability, Cuomo unveiled his plan in early January with Sanders at his side.

The proposal was similar to Clinton's — make tuition free at public colleges and universities in New York for students whose families earn up to $125,000 annually.

In the state budget that was finalized last weekend, Cuomo's proposal was included in the spending plan.

The final version of the program, named the Excelsior Scholarship, includes requirements for students — they must maintain an adequate grade point average to receive the benefit and they must complete 30 credit hours in an academic year.

There's also a mandate requiring scholarship recipients to stay in New York after graduation. If they received the aid for four years of undergraduate study, they must live and work in New York for four years. The timetable for how long they must stay will be based on the duration of the scholarship.

If they choose to leave the state before the end of the timetable, the scholarship will become a student loan that they will need to pay back.

http://auburnpub.com/blogs/eye_on_ny/clinton-cuomo-s-ny-tuition-free-college-plan-will-send/article_789cf1d8-1f95-11e7-bf4a-1782181b8770.html

[NCTraveler]

1. K&R nt.

[WomenRising2017]

2. This is fantastic.

I was so happy to see Gov. Cuomo enact Hillary's debt free college policy.

[betsuni]

3. K&R

[beam me up scottie]

4. Glad to see Cuomo gave her credit too since this was both Bernie's and Hillary's plan.

Her original plan wasn't free:

But it Wouldn't Be Free

Unlike suggestions by progressive activists to create a completely free college education, Clinton's plan would require families to make a "realistic" contribution toward tuition costs. Along with money from personal savings and borrowing, the estimated family contribution would include student earnings from 10 hours of work a week. Also, states wouldn't be able to use money from Pell Grants in designing their loan-free tuition programs, so the federal grants for low- and middle-income students could still be used to help pay for living costs, such as room and board.

http://time.com/money/3990445/hillary-clinton-college-plan/

After the primary was over Clinton and Sanders worked together on the plan for the Democratic platform:

Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders promoted a plan for debt-free college at a campaign event in Durham, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, marking the second joint appearance on the campaign trail for the two former Democratic primary opponents.

The democratic socialist from Vermont, who famously gave Clinton a scare early in the Democratic primary by defeating her badly in New Hampshire, returned with her to the Granite State to help his former in the election against Donald Trump.

Sanders and Clinton discussed the merits of their college plan, which would make public colleges and universities tuition free for any student from a family making under $125,000 a year. Students who already have debt would be able to refinance their loans at a lower interest rate.

http://time.com/4512340/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-college-plan-new-hampshire/

Gov. Cuomo invited Bernie to help him introduce the plan in January and thanked him for being ahead of his time:

"Now, I have the good pleasure to introduce our special guest. Senator Sanders spoke for the middle class and the working men and women across this nation and the issues that are important to them. 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 college affordability. And we all owe him a big thank you and round of applause for what he did. And let’s give a big New York welcome to a Brooklyn boy, because you can take, you can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take Brooklyn out of the boy -- Senator Bernie Sanders."

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-presents-1st-proposal-2017-state-state-making

While this plan has been criticized it's still a good first step. Hopefully the legislation recently introduced in the house and Senate will also become a reality some day.

[R B Garr]

6. If only Vermont had a plan like this. Then what you

are trying to insinuate would be credible. But Vermont doesn't have free tuition.

[ehrnst]

7. Not insinuating anything about Vermont at all

I'm talking about this plan:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/04/sanders-democratic-colleagues-introduce-new-free-college-bill

[ehrnst]

8. Just glad to see that Cuomo is giving credit where credit is due

Especially since the income cap was called "a terrible idea" by some who discovered that "free college" interested young college age white people more than "debt-free college," but have come to see the pragmatism as of late.

Good to remember where good ideas came from, especially when it's not brought up very often.

Women have had to deal with this on a regular basis, unfortunately even in the Obama White House, so it's good to see it rectified, even after the fact.

[Cha]

5. Mahalo, ehrnst..