Assemblyman Joseph Giglio and other New York State Assembly Republicans have unveiled their own college affordability proposal that they say fills gaps in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s free tuition plan.
Minority Republicans earlier this week announced the Affordable College For All Initiative, a bill package they said would “modernize” the state’s Tuition Assistance Program that provides nearly $1 billion in grants to students across the state.
While Cuomo’s recent proposal, the Excelsior Scholarship program, would use TAP to help provide free tuition at all state colleges for New York residents whose families earn $125,000 or less a year, Assembly Republicans’ proposal would only increase the number of TAP-eligible students and the TAP awards they receive. The GOP proposal would also help graduates pay back student loans.
“I think this works a lot better than the governor’s proposal. We’re looking at things that are already working and working well,” Giglio, R-Gowanda, told the Times Herald on Thursday. “That’s why we think this is a better proposal. We think we should enhance the things that work, rather than reinventing the wheel, so to speak.”
The Affordable College For All Initiative would raise the threshold for TAP eligibility from families that make $80,000 to $125,000, which Republicans said would make an additional 36,000 students eligible for TAP. Giglio called the $125,000 threshold in both Republicans’ and Cuomo’s proposals “coincidental.”
The proposal would also provide an additional $500 to every TAP recipient and increase the maximum TAP award from $5,165 to $6,470, while also restoring TAP funding for graduate students.
“2000 was the last time they have adjusted TAP, so now you’re 17 years past the last time anything’s been changed. People’s incomes go up, and so does the cost of everything else,” Giglio said. “You have to increase the household income a little bit to account for that, and the award should be increased a little bit and … graduate school is not included anymore. It was removed a few years back when we were at a deficit, and we’d like to see that restored.”
Under Cuomo’s free-tuition plan, eligible students would still receive TAP and any other federal grants, but additional state funds, which the governor’s office said would cost $163 million a year, would cover their remaining tuition costs.
Assembly Republicans said their plan would impact more students.
Students need to take at least 12 credit hours a semester to be eligible for TAP, while students would need to take least 15 credit hours a semester to be eligible for free tuition under Cuomo’s plan. Republicans argued this would exclude students with jobs and adult learners who don’t have time to take more than 12 credits.
Cuomo officials have clarified that students only need to complete 120 credits within four years of starting college to be eligible. However, for a student to earn 120 credits in four years, they would have to take at least 15 credits a semester, if they did not take summer or winter classes and did not have any credits coming into college.
Cuomo’s proposal would cover tuition costs only for students at state schools in the SUNY and CUNY systems, while TAP is available to students who attend private colleges in the state as well. Private college officials, including St. Bonaventure University Interim President Dr. Andrew Roth, have raised concerns about how the free-tuition plan will impact their college’s enrollments.
“It’s probably the fairest way to go about helping people afford college,” Giglio said of the Republicans’ plan. “We have kids going right out of high school, adults going back to school, things of that nature. … Those are the things we are looking at to find a program that makes college affordable for everyone and every college so they have choice.”
Giglio said that although it’s easy to compare Republicans’ and Cuomo’s proposals, he noted GOP members had called for TAP increases before Cuomo announced his plan, and he doesn’t see the two proposals as an “either/or kind of thing.”
He said he’s appreciative that Cuomo’s proposal has focused the public’s attention on college affordability and possibly given more attention to the Republicans’ proposal than it normally would have got.
“Everybody’s paying attention, and so now our proposal merits a call from (media),” Giglio said. “And that’s a good thing. So hopefully we can all move forward and come up with the best possible program for everyone.”
Republicans — who are outnumbered by Democrats in the Assembly 107 to 43 — are asking that their proposal be included in this year’s budget. Cuomo’s proposal will also have to be approved by the state Legislature.
“There are ways to increase TAP outside the budget, obviously,” Giglio said. “If it doesn’t make it in the budget we’ll, as we have in the past, work outside the budget.”
