Forbes - "Free" Community College is regressive

Interesting article arguing that free community college is actually regressive, in that low and middle income students already receive grant aid, so the remaining aid ends up going to higher income folks.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2017/02/07/let-them-eat-free-community-college/2/#371956c840ad

I hope NYS goes ahead with free tuition for low income students. Then the Pell grant can help cover some of the transportation costs like it used to do. I don’t know where higher income people would be getting the aid. NYS has, and will have, income limits for TAP grants.

San Francisco’s mayor announced today that CC was free. They’re using a tax on sales of multimillion dollar homes to pay for tuition and books.

I think Forbes thinks it’s regressive because if this trend continues it’s going to hurt the massive moneymaking machine that college rankings have become for companies like Forbes and USNWR.

The current plan for New York is for the state to top up existing institutional, state and federal aid to reach free tuition, not free tuition and then whatever else added to it.

I thought the NYS plan was to increase the income limit for TAP grants to ~$120k regardless of other aid, but it doesn’t look like that’s true. Maybe sybbie719 can clarify.

TAP grants are independent of Pell. A student who qualifies for full TAP (currently ~$5k) would also qualify for full Pell (also roughly $5k). A student receiving full awards would currently receive ~$10k/year. SUNY tuition is only ~$8k/year, so will NYS reduce a family’s TAP grant so the total TAP and Pell combined is only $8k? It seems like the proposal is intended to help families making too much to qualify for Pell.

The plan is obviously not written in detail yet, but the plan as laid out says it will add the last dollars to get to full tuition, so if full tuition is $8000, then that’s the number they expect to work with, and that limit would keep costs down. I’m not supporting or complaining about that, just saying that the goal so far is full tuition only. I suspect that you have given the guts of how it would work for families a lot more thought than the politicians have. When it’s all said and done, I hope the points you have raised will be considered because they are important. But I don’t think we’re there yet.

@sybbie719, can you explain the NYS free tuition proposal? Families who currently qualify for full Pell and TAP (those making ~$40k) will still only get ~$5k/year from each program, but those making ~$60-125k are going to get the entire ~$8k state tuition covered? Upper income families would get free tuition while lower income families are effectively getting their Pell grants reduced. That doesn’t make sense. It’s still not “free,” but it doesn’t seem fair either.

The Governor proposes to have free tuition to SUNY/CUNY for families making less than 125k.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/nyregion/free-tuition-new-york-colleges-plan.html?_r=0

NYS TAP currently tops out at family income of 80k. Remember to get full TAP you must have a 0 EFC (FULL TAP is currently $5165). Full TAP currently only covers tuition at the SUNY/CUNY Community College level. It does not cover full tuition at the 4 year schools.

There is also a big drop in the amount of TAP a student receives once they do not have a 0 EFC. There are students who are on EOP/HEOP who do not have full TAP awards.

A family making 80K who is eligible for TAP, will most likely receive $500/year.

Also the SUNY tuition credit is tied to the amount of TAP a person receives. A FULL TAP student will most likely receive a credit that is equal to fees (~1400)

Even for students who are getting full STEM scholarships, the TAP monies are applied first.

So for the most economically disadvantaged students at 4 year school, the state will make up the difference between the $5165 (full TAP) and the cost of tuition(~3k), hopefully leaving the PELL intact so that students can pay for books/transportation costs/ course fees, etc.

Those families making who are don’t have a 0 EFC, up to a family income of 125k are getting the ones who will be getting a bigger piece of the Pie. For example the 80k family, who gets $500 in TAP, will receive ~7500 from the inititative. The family who makes 125k who would normally not be eligible for any TAP or Pell would be getting ~$8k/year to cover tuition. The room and board fees @ 125k is probably going to be less than their EFC.

However, it is worth noting that California community colleges are already among the lowest tuition community colleges (for in-state students). Tuition is $46 per semester credit unit, or $1,380 for 30 semester credit units that would be a normal full time course load in an academic year. This means California is much closer to the “free community college for all” model than some other states like Vermont, where in-state tuition is $253 per semester credit unit, or $7,590 for 30 semester credit units.