Editorial

Questions about governor’s tuition plan abound

Posted

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed free tuition at CUNY and SUNY schools for families earning $100,000 or less in 2017 and families earning $125,000 or less in 2019.

We support any good measure that would help New Yorkers better afford college, and we believe the intent behind Cuomo’s proposal is noble. There are a number of unanswered questions, though.

On his website, Cuomo says that his plan is aimed at the middle class. On Long Island, however, middle class is defined differently than it is upstate –– at least from a household income perspective. In most parts of upstate New York, $100,000 or $125,000 is a lot of money, but not here, where the cost of living is 50 percent higher than the national average, according to the Census Bureau.

Most middle-class Long Island families with more than one child need a household income of at least $125,000 to make ends meet. We’re talking about nurses, firefighters, police officers and teachers.

In Lynbrook, the median household income is $82,189; Long Beach, $84,831; Baldwin, $91,462; and Bellmore, $114,479. Without any further analysis, you might assume that the governor’s proposal would benefit lots of families in each of these communities. But not so fast. In Lynbrook, Baldwin and Bellmore, the average number of people per household is three, while in Long Beach, it’s two.

Most Long Island families with two, three or more children need to earn significantly more than the median household income because there are, simply, more people in the house to support. A family income of $150,000 or more is often required to maintain a middle-class lifestyle.

With those kinds of earnings, though, too many Long Island families would be ineligible for free tuition under the governor’s plan. Meanwhile, similar upstate families, living similar middle-class lifestyles, could earn less and would be eligible for free tuition at CUNYs and SUNYs.

That would be inherently unfair, particularly because Long Island sends the highest amount –– and highest percentage –– of state income taxes to Albany of any region in New York.

For decades, area public school officials have decried the state’s education aid formula, saying that it fails to account for the Island’s high cost of living, which is driven primarily by home prices (which average between $350,000 and $450,000) and property taxes (which range between $8,000 and as high as $30,000 per household).

For years, school officials have said that the state should index school aid to the region’s cost of living –– which they believe is 1.25 to 1.5 times higher than upstate. Upstate legislators, however, have ignored such arguments, and as a result, Long Islanders get back only 25 cents on the dollar in education aid, on average.

If the state were to move ahead with Cuomo’s tuition proposal, it would need to index the income limit to regional costs to ensure fairness. If the plan were indexed for Long Island’s cost of living, then the income limit here would range from $156,250 (1.25 times greater than $125,000) to $187,500 (1.5 times greater).

There are other important questions to be answered. The proposal is projected to cost $163 million a year. Should this money not be spent first on high-need school districts in poverty-stricken areas? The Hempstead School District is perennially in dire need of funding because of its low local tax base. We believe that at least part of the state’s money would be best spent on ensuring that all children, regardless of household income, receive a sound high school education, before lawmakers move on to higher education.

Additionally, we must consider the possible effect of such a plan on our private colleges and universities. Long Island is blessed with an array of fine public and private institutions of higher learning. Offering free CUNY and SUNY tuition could draw students away from private colleges, which must work very hard to attract students.

We only need to look at Dowling College’s recent bankruptcy to understand the financial challenges that many private schools face.