Posted on 04/10/2017 6:24:39 PM PDT by TaxPayer2000
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- There's a big string attached to New York's free middle-class college tuition initiative: Students must stay in the state after graduation or else pay back the benefit.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the requirement was added to protect the state's investment in a student's education by ensuring they don't take advantage of free tuition and then leave New York. The rule wasn't a part of Cuomo's free college tuition proposal when he unveiled it in January but was inserted during final negotiations with lawmakers over the state budget, which was approved Sunday.
The tuition initiative, which Cuomo said is a national model, covers state college or university tuition for in-state students from families earning $125,000 or less. Students must remain in New York for as many years as they received the benefit. They must repay the money as a loan if they take a job in another state.
"Why should New Yorkers pay for your college education and then you pick up and you move to California?" Cuomo said during a call with state editorial writers. "The concept of investing in you and your education is that you're going to stay here and be an asset to the state. If you don't want to stay here, then go to California now, let them pay for your college education."
Students at University at Albany, part of the state university system, aren't so sure.
"I don't know how much I like feeling confined, even to staying in the state for four more years," said Bobby Rickard, an 18-year-old freshman from Brewster who has not yet decided his major. "I don't know what life will have for me."
Cumorah Reed, a 19-year-old English major, said certain technology jobs are concentrated on the West Coast and many of her classmates will be surprised to learn they will not be able to apply for those positions immediately after graduation.
"I think it's going to be harder than people think," Reed said.
Ashley Mendez, 18, a journalism and communications major, said the proposal is a fair compromise because many residents will stay anyway.
"I'm a New Yorker. I wouldn't leave the state for anything," Mendez said.
Sara Goldrick-Rab, a Temple University professor who studies college affordability, said the requirement undercuts the promise of free tuition and could deliver a nasty shock to students who fail to read the fine print, or who take the money believing they will stay in New York, only to find better job opportunities elsewhere.
"It's absolutely bait and switch," she said. "You entice people with something they really, really need and then you penalize them if they can't find a decent job and have to leave."
Republican lawmakers pushed for the requirement during closed-door state budget negotiations.
"We took the governor's original plan and made it better, by requiring students to maintain a certain GPA and to live and work in New York after they graduate," said Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Senate's Republican leadership.
Students who receive free tuition and then leave the state for an advanced degree won't have to pay the money back assuming they return to New York once they complete their graduate studies. State officials also plan to make accommodations for graduates who leave the state for military service.
As part of the budget, lawmakers also approved a new tuition assistance program for students at private colleges and universities that offers up to $3,000 in tuition grants. That assistance also comes with a requirement that a student remain in New York after graduation for the same number of years they received the benefit.
Modern indentured servitude, eh?
My old company used to sponsor H1-Bs for green cards. Yep, you guessed it, you had to keep working there for two years after you got your green card, or you had to pay back enormous legal fees.
When my buddy finished his two years on March 17, we told him his green card was no good without a green hat to go with it!
haha!
love freedom.
Sounds like slavery to me.
What if they take welfare in another state? Cheaper for NY than if they stayed and took it there.
But there will be fewer jobs for these grads because NY taxes, already sky high, will have to be raised even more, driving business out of state.
I'm trying to understand the "free" part here.
Indirectly, its an admission that the government in New York knows they aren't offering incentives to stay in the state.
"We took the governor's original plan and made it better, by requiring students to maintain a certain GPA and to live and work in New York after they graduate," said Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Senate's Republican leadership.
I don’t think this would hold up in Court.
Yup. And people fall for gimmicks like this all the time.
Just wait til they get older and find out that knee won't be replaced!
“I don’t think this would hold up in Court.”
—
Why? (No argument,I really don’t know.)
.
How do they verify you are still in NY? Report to a probation officer?
Slave plantations, indian reservations, urban ghetto, and now the state college, are all Democrat scams.
Genius though, NY must now keep all elite liberals, and NeverNewYork can have liberty.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Somehow the editor wrote the wrong headline... It should be:
Republicans and Democrats hock taxpayer homes to give open budgets to state colleges and universities.
The college budgets will BLOOM under this ‘plan’ and taxpayers will be paying three to four times as much as they anticipate they’ll be paying as all the faculty and staff come racing to get their piece of everyone’s property.
Here’s a string I would love to have seen... If you want the taxpayer paid degree, it must be for an actual degree - no liberal arts majors need apply. Least we’d have a shot at getting educated students who at least have a chance of becoming taxpayers.
Besides, Starbucks already said they’re going to be hiring immigrants anyway.
>>Sounds like slavery to me.<<
I don’t know if the premise was accurate, but that was the basis for the (very good) TV show “Northern Exposure.” A guy gets his med school paid but has to be a doctor in a city in Alaska.
I think in this case it is a loan that you repay by staying or repaying. Prepaid employment.
Something of value was offered and given so this is just a contract.
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