Posted on 04/12/2017 11:22:44 AM PDT by drewh
Even free isnt good enough for liberals.
New York States newly passed 2018 budget included a provision that will pay for the tuition of residents who attend public colleges in the state, building on some of the ideas promoted by Sen. Bernie Sanders during the campaign. The liberal media praised the government handout and found progressives who still considered it insufficient.
Slate senior business and economics correspondent Jordan Weissmann called the new program pretty lame, and immediately focused on the lefties trashing the plan.
In the eyes of free-college advocates, however, the program leaves a lot to be desired. Which is why you may have noticed some progressives trashing the thing on Twitter, he wrote. He repeated several of their complaints which included that it would help wealthier families more, fail to cover room and board, and the pointless and parochial requirement that students stay in New York state after graduation for as many years as they received the Excelsior funding.
The Excelsior Scholarship is estimated to cost $163 million per year and would only apply to students whose parents earn less than $100,000 a year. Other stipulations included earning 30 credits per year, finishing school on time and remaining in New York State two to four years following graduation. The scholarship only covers tuition, not room and board.
Some liberals considered those rules too burdensome.
NPR education blogger Anya Kamenetz quoted free college advocate Sara Goldrick-Rab of Temple University who tweeted, "Free college is about moving beyond a complex, untrustworthy aid system. This move perpetuates existing problems."
Huffington Post reporter Lydia OConnor said the post-graduation requirement to stay in New York State was alarming to some student aid experts. But she also found liberal praise for the bill, including former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who called it a great step for progressives.
Absent from many of those stories, was criticism from the other side. American Enterprise Institute research fellow Kevin James challenged free college programs during the campaign in an op-ed for US News & World Report. He wrote that making college free could cause private colleges to struggle to survive trying to compete with free state schools and warned it would significantly reduce pressure on public institutions to serve students effectively.
The Daily Wire staff writer added a dash of skepticism. Aaron Bandler noted that as more students will attend college for free, the demand would increase and raise the cost of tuition even higher.
While Tennessee, Oregon, and Minnesota already offer free community college, the plan makes New York the first state to offer to pay for four years of public tuition.
Too many people in college as it is....
no free room and board at Columbia, no justice!
What determines if it is two or four years (in NYS)?
I assume that if they refuse to sign agreeing to that they will they don't get the $$$
They can wait tables in NYS for those years after free college,
Just send these kids diplomas in the mail - Affirmative Action Degrees... Hocus Pocus, you are an MD..
"...requirement that students stay in New York state after graduation for as many years as they received the Excelsior funding."
“New York the first state to offer to pay for four years of public tuition”
I thought the University of California system was officially tuition free.
4 years of free state college. There will a another stipulation to getting free stuff in NYS....I know you all know the answer to that one.... Makes me sick that Emperor Cuomo will do this ,pissing away almost 200 million a year.
“Ungrateful liberals”
Is there any other kind?
They could have someone take the classes for them and they would still whine.
The requirement to stay in the state should actually be increased as far as time. Say 10 years.
They’d have something if they put all this money toward trade schools instead.
Redundant.
Nothing in Life is Free.
Maybe it’s Included, but it’s never Free.
Thanks!
I’d be shocked if they still were. Most state universities were free when they were established. Over the years those laws and provisions were removed. The ones that didn’t and charged some sort of fee not labeled as tuition were eventually sued.
Then there is the situation that colleges are what they are. They're money-sucking machines which will grab as much money as they can to support their lunatic ways. Will there be a situation where tuition is "free" ie a loan with conditions which will get it forgiven, but costs such as student fees, room and board, lab fees etc etc will increase beyond belief? Will it cause a death spiral for most private colleges, leading to NYS paying for many more tuitions than anticipated? It's all so unknown.
That is clear and unambiguous discrimination. Sue.
It’s not worth anything if it isn’t free harvard degree for everyone. It’s either equal or it isn’t!
I recall dimly now that there was a collision with a governor name of Reagan.
No different than a company paying for your education and requiring you to stay x-amount of years. Same with the military.
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