The husband/wife East New York lawmaker team of Assemblyman Charles Barron and City Councilwoman Inez Barron today called out Governor Andrew Cuomo as a hypocrite of higher education.
The legislators alongside educational advocates at a City Hall press conference said Cuomo’s new Excelsior Program was a “sham” because of its tuition hike for ineligible students of the scholarship, who will have to pay an extra $200 a year for the four years they attend a CUNY/SUNY school.
Both Barrons’ have long been very involved in higher education. Inez Barron is chair of the Council’s Committee on Higher Education as was Chales Barron when he was in the City Council. Inez was formerly in the assembly and the couple swapped seats when Charles was term-limited out of office in 2013.
Cuomo earlier this week announced the passage of the free tuition program, or the Excelsior Program, that would allow eligible students, middle-to-low-income students with families that make $125,000 or less a year, to attend SUNY and CUNY schools for free. Tuition at SUNY/CUNY colleges ranges for two-to-four years from $4,350-$6,470.
“First of all if tuition is free and there is no tuition, then why do you need scholarships to pay for tuition. The only time CUNY was free was when it was the free academy in 1949. Back then it was the free academy for white men only – like the Governor. It’s a contradiction to tell people that it’s free tuition and then tell the struggling working class families that every penny that you get from Pell or TAP [grants] you will have to use that for your tuition and if there is anything left from the tuition, then you can apply for Excelsior, said Charles Barron.
The Excelsior Program is what is known as a “last dollar” program that kicks in on top of other scholarships and grants, which limits its benefit to the poorest students, with living expenses, books and non-tuition costs not being covered by the program.
Current costs to attend CUNY are as follows, textbooks cost about $1,894 a year, technical fees are about $125, the activity fee is $60, the consolidated service fee is $15, transportation costs is about $1,054, personal expenses is about $1,816, and housing, meals and utility costs are about $4,210. According to Councilwoman Barron that is over $9,000 in non-tuition cost.
“The problem now is that we are looking at a world situation that requires you to have a post-secondary education, so it’s a requirement. As in the past we had compulsory education through elementary school and then through secondary school. It’s my position that compulsory education needs to be expanded to post-secondary education, which means that the city and state should provide that free of charge” said Councilwoman Barron.
The councilwoman noted that she is a 1967 graduate of Hunter College, and was able to attend college because of CUNY’s previous tuition-free policy, which allowed any student who held a B average GPA in high school to attend college free.
Educational advocates also criticize the governor for going on a so-called “victory tour” since passing the Excelsior Program because of the lack of comprehensive higher education funding available for all students. There are 900,000 students registered at SUNY/CUNY schools with TAP and Pell grants paying tuition for 180,000 of them.
The Governor’s excelsior program will only cover 32,000 students which will leave nearly 690,000 SUNY/CUNY students to pay tuition including the $200 hike, the advocates said.
The Excelsior Program also stipulates that students who enroll in the program and successfully receive a degree will be required to live and work in-state (New York state) for the same number of years after graduation as they received the scholarship while in school.
