Free tuition a hit with Hil
HILLARY CLINTON offered a strong endorsement of New York’s new free college tuition plan Wednesday, saying it was exactly what progressive leaders should deliver.
Clinton joined Gov. Cuomo for a ceremonial bill signing at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens, and hailed the program as a “beacon of hope” to struggling families.
“What we need to be doing is throwing open the doors for everyone willing to work and achieve their education,” Clinton said.
Clinton said she hoped other states would adopt similar tuition programs and that it would send a message to leaders in Congress.
“We don’t need to be building walls, we need to be building bridges and the best bridge to the future is a good education,” she said.
Clinton is the second 2016 presidential contender to join Cuomo at an event related to the tuition program.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders teamed up with Cuomo to announce his plan for the program in January.
Although free college tuition was a staple of Sanders’ campaign for president, Cuomo on Wednesday said Clinton was the “inspiration” for his proposal. Clinton later adopted much of Sanders’ college affordability plan after she secured the nomination.
Cuomo described it as “an outrageously ambitious idea but an irrefutably smart idea.”
The governor’s free-tuition plan was included as part of the state’s new budget, which lawmakers adopted over the weekend. It offers free tuition to SUNY and CUNY students whose families earn $125,000 a year or less.
“No child will be denied college because they can’t afford it,” Cuomo said.
The plan has drawn criticism over a provision that requires students remain in New York after graduation for the same number of years they received assistance or be forced to pay back the money. Cuomo has defended the provision as a way to ensure that New York benefits from the state’s investment in the students.