The dust has largely settled from the 2018 election season.\u00a0 Across the nation, the work of governing begins.\u00a0 And when Governor Cuomo is sworn in for his third consecutive term, he will be the second longest-serving governor in office (Utah\u2019s Governor Gary Herbert being the longest, he was elected in 2009).<\/p>\n
The governor will have his work cut out for him.\u00a0 According to the state Comptroller, the state faces a possible $17.9 billion deficit over the next three years, if spending levels stayed the same and adjusted for inflation.\u00a0 The governor\u2019s office says that it can manage those shortfalls by keeping a cap on state spending to no more than 2 percent.<\/p>\n
But keeping to that cap will be difficult.\u00a0 During the governor\u2019s tenure, spending on health care and education \u2013 the two biggest components of the budget \u2013 have exceeded that cap, so there have to be cuts in other areas.<\/p>\n
And that doesn\u2019t factor in possible changes in the federal budget or a downturn in the economy.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the governor will want to spend more in certain areas.\u00a0 During the election campaign, the governor stated that he wanted to maintain \u2013 and expand \u2013 the state\u2019s support for public health insurance.\u00a0 Since the President still seems hell-bent on destroying the federal health insurance program that provides coverage for tens of millions of Americans, states like New York will be stuck trying to provide protection.<\/p>\n
There are other issues that the governor continues to stand behind. \u00a0Higher education is one such issue.\u00a0 For example, the Excelsior Scholarship, in combination with other student financial aid programs, allows students to attend a SUNY or CUNY college tuition-free.\u00a0 A recipient of an Excelsior Scholarship may receive up to $5,500.\u00a0 The Scholarship is available to eligible college students.<\/p>\n
To be eligible an applicant must have a combined federal adjusted gross income of $110,000 or less; be enrolled in at least 30 credits each year (successively); if attended college prior to the 2018-19 academic year, have earned at least 30 credits each year; and agree to reside and be employed in the state for the length of time the award is received.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the program\u2019s requirements dramatically limit participation.\u00a0 The Scholarship, which was advertised as an option for hundreds of thousands of public college students, was only awarded to 20,000 students.\u00a0 The State University and City University systems have over 630,000 college students; thus, the Excelsior Program was awarded to only 3 percent of the student population.<\/p>\n
Does that mean that the Scholarship failed?\u00a0 Not at all. \u00a0For those 20,000 students and their families, the program is an important component of paying for college.<\/p>\n
But the program\u2019s potential impact was excessively hyped.<\/p>\n
New York State law requires that the program expand eligibility next year and this is one of the governor\u2019s signature policies.\u00a0 Despite a tight budget, the governor will be tested to not only expand the program to higher income students, but to figure out ways to ensure that other needy, qualified students have access to the Scholarship.<\/p>\n
First, the governor should change Excelsior so that it requires that students meet the same full-time requirement as the Tuition Assistance Program: 12 credits per semester or 24 credits a year, instead of 30 credits.<\/p>\n
Second, help part-time students. \u00a0Making college attainable for all New Yorkers means expanding affordability for part-time students, too.<\/p>\n
Third, provide non-financial aid to needy students.\u00a0 Lower income students often need other economic and counseling assistance in order to succeed.\u00a0 Programs such as the City University\u2019s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) are proven successes with graduation rates that exceed the general student population.<\/p>\n
The Excelsior Program is a laudable program, but it is only a first step.\u00a0 Despite all the other troubles the governor faces, strengthening the state\u2019s financial assistance to college students should be an important goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The dust has largely settled from the 2018 election season.\u00a0 Across the nation, the work of governing begins.\u00a0 And when Governor Cuomo is sworn in for his third consecutive term, he will be the second longest-serving governor in office (Utah\u2019s Governor Gary Herbert being the longest, he was elected in 2009). The governor will have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2150,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148\/revisions\/2150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}