NY gov proposes free tuition for public colleges

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced a plan Tuesday to offer free tuition at state and city colleges for qualifying students. 

According to The New York Times, any student who has been accepted to a public university in New York will be eligible for free tuition if their family earns $125,000 or less a year. 

Cuomo announced his plan alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who made free college tuition a plank of his 2016 presidential campaign. 

{mosads}Sanders touted the proposal as a “model for the rest of the nation.” 

“With an exploding technology, and with most of the good-paying jobs requiring more and more education, we need to make certain that every New Yorker, every Vermonter and every American gets all the education they need regardless of family income,” he said in a statement. 

“In other words, we must make public colleges and universities tuition-free for the middle class and working families of our country.”

Cuomo intends for the plan to launch this fall with a three-year rollout, though it requires legislative approval. 

Nearly one million New York families would qualify for the program. 

Initial estimates show the program would cost the state $163 million when fully put in place in 2019.