The Excelsior Scholarship, New York’s tuition-free program, only reaches a small portion of low-income and community college students within the state, according to a new analysis of the initiative.
The Center for an Urban Future’s (CUF) new brief, “New York’s Free Tuition Promise Falling Short,” looked at Excelsior scholarships awarded in 2017-2018, the first two years of the program.
“We are clear in our minds about the increasing value of a college credential,” said Eli Dvorkin, editorial and policy director at CUF. “In New York, we know that making a college degree more affordable is a great investment in New York’s future and we saw this program as an important initiative designed to expand access to a college credential.”
The data revealed that few students at community colleges across the state and the City University of New York (CUNY) system received scholarship funding from the program.
“This I think is striking because these are the students who face the greatest financial barriers to college completion,” said Dvorkin. “A program designed to make college affordable isn’t really doing much for the students who have the hardest time affording a college degree.”
A total of 335 scholarships, which amounted to under $1.3 million, were awarded across CUNY’s seven community college campuses. This accounted for 1% of the total funding in 2018, the brief said.
CUNY students, who make up 39% of the state’s enrolled undergraduate population, received 4,073 of the 25,100 scholarships. Community college students at CUNY and the State University of New York (SUNY), who make up almost half of all students in the state, received 19% of the scholarships awarded in 2018, a decline from 24% in 2017.
