Free tuition, but students must stay after college

ALBANY, N.Y. — There’s a big string attached to New York’s free middle-class college tuition initiative: Students must stay in the state after graduation or else pay back the benefit.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the requirement was added to protect the state’s investment in a student’s education by ensuring they don’t take advantage of free tuition and then leave New York. The rule wasn’t a part of Cuomo’s free college tuition proposal when he unveiled it in January but was inserted during final negotiations with lawmakers over the state budget, which was approved Sunday.

The tuition initiative, which Cuomo said is a national model, covers state college or university tuition for in-state students from families earning $125,000 or less. Students must remain in New York for as many years as they received the benefit. They must repay the money as a loan if they take a job in another state.

“Why should New Yorkers pay for your college education and then you pick up and you move to California?” Cuomo said during a call with state editorial writers. “The concept of investing in you and your education is that you’re going to stay here and be an asset to the state. If you don’t want to stay here, then go to California now, let them pay for your college education.”

Students at the University at Albany, part of the state university system, aren’t so sure.

“I don’t know how much I like feeling confined, even to staying in the state for four more years,” said Bobby Rickard, an 18-year-old freshman from Brewster who has not yet decided his major. “I don’t know what life will have for me.”

Cumorah Reed, a 19-yearold English major, said certain technology jobs are concentrated on the West Coast and many of her classmates will be surprised to learn they will not be able to apply for those positions immediately after graduation.

“I think it’s going to be harder than people think,” Reed said.