Cuomo Proposes More SUNY Tuition Hikes

Five years of SUNY tuition hikes amounting to 30% higher tuition?

That's not enough for Governor Cuomo - more are coming and Cuomo's stealing the money to use for other things:

It’s understandable that listeners might have mistaken Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s enthusiastic pronouncement of a $6.9 billion commitment to the State University of New York and the City University of New York as an increase for SUNY and CUNY. It isn’t. It’s a cut, delivered with all the deceptive enthusiasm of the chocolate ration reduction in George Orwell’s 1984.

Equally disappointing is the governor’s promotion of another “rational tuition plan,” under which students and parents would keep paying more and more while the state pays less.

...

This proposal comes as tuition at schools like the University at Albany rose almost 5 percent this year. That’s on top of four prior years of tuition hikes under the “rational tuition plan,” an idea that sounded like a boon for higher education but has come to feel like a bait-and-switch game.

As we’ve pointed out before, the 2011 rational tuition program – under which tuition would increase $300 a year for five years – has increasingly shifted public higher education costs from the state to SUNY students. With state support staying relatively level as tuition steadily rose, the state’s share of SUNY costs has plunged from 59 percent prior to the Great Recession to 36 percent. Students’ now pay nearly two thirds. And, as we’ve noted in the past, it appears that $400 million of the extra tuition money – half of the $800 million more than students are paying – ended up in the state’s coffers.

That’s nothing but a tax hike, targeted just at SUNY students.

Everybody at that speech yesterday should have gotten up and screamed at Cuomo the way Charles Barron did.

Of course, it could be worse for SUNY.

Cuomo cut nearly $250 million from CUNY.

The Cuomo Donors At The Center Of The Buffalo Billion Corruption Investigation

Gothamist with a good round-up of the Cuomo Buffalo Billion corruption story:

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is probing the process by which three developers who are Gov. Cuomo donors came to get the bulk of a billion dollars in state contracts to develop major projects in Buffalo. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, the president of which, Alain Kaloyeros, oversees the Buffalo Billion program. The program is supposed to generate thousands of upstate jobs through the tech, clean-energy, and pharmaceutical facilities the Cuomo cronies were tapped to build with $855 million in taxpayer money.

Pressed earlier this summer by a reporter for Buffalo's Investigative Post who was seeking details of the bidding process and faced illegal stonewalling across multiple state agencies and state-run nonprofits, Kaloyeros said, "We are not political operatives nor do we respond to perceived threats and terrorism." That "terrorism" apparently consisted of repeated phone calls, emails, and Freedom of Information Law requests.

Still, little is known about the selection process. What is clear, according to the Investigative Post, is that developer McGuire Development scored the $55 million contract to renovate skyscrapers in Buffalo to accommodate IBM, then three months later, donated $25,000 to Cuomo's campaign. The firm LP Ciminelli scored a heftier $750 million contract to build a solar-panel factory. Its president, Louis Ciminelli, is one of Cuomo's biggest donors in the region, having contributed $96,500 to the governor's two campaigns. Until competitors balked, the request for bids was written with the requirement that bidders have 50 years experience working in Buffalo, which only LP Ciminelli did. That company and Ciminelli Real Estate, run by Louis Ciminelli's brother, won the $50 million contract to build drug research space at a Buffalo medical campus. Paul Ciminelli's $10,500 to Cuomo and $5,000 to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul cannot have hurt.

Cuomo said today that he had nothing to do with the awarding of any contracts:

Cuomo points finger at SUNY when asked about Buffalo Billion investigation: "SUNY has administered the grant process."

— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) September 20, 2015

Cuomo on LPCiminelli's role in Buffalo Billion: "I had nothing to do with the selection whatsoever. That was handled by SUNY."

— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) September 20, 2015

And at least on the face of things, that's true:

SUNY Polytechnic Institute is headed by Alain Kaloyeros, who has led New York's high-tech effort under three governors. A call to Kaloyeros wasn't returned Friday.

In 2014, Cuomo's office had announced the key firms in the Buffalo Billion project were selected by the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and the Fort Schuyler Management Corp.

Kaloyeros headed the college, which is now SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

Fort Schuyler is nonprofit organization affiliated with SUNY and SUNY Polytechnic "that facilitates research and economic development opportunities in support of New York's emerging nanotechnology and semiconductor clusters," according to its website.

Of course, given Cuomo's famous "hands-on" management style, it's difficult to believe that there wasn't at least a little pressure exerted behind the scenes steering the choices.

With Cuomo throwing SUNY under the bus today with his statements, the message has been sent to anybody at SUNY Polytechnic or Fort Schuyler that Cuomo is going to scapegoat SUNY here.

So if there was any pressure put upon anybody behind the scenes and/or any other kind of shenanigans Cuomo and his minions are famous for (see the Moreland Commission for a prime example of those), there's going to be an incentive for those pressured to dish dirt to the feds.

Between the Cuomo donors who appear to be recipients of subpoenas from the feds investigating the bidding process (see here for a partial illustration of the tentacles between the Ciminellis, Cuomo and some of the other players) and the SUNY Poly and Fort Schuyler functionaries who handed the contracts out to them, there's a whole lot of danger here that somebody with something very, very damaging to Andrew Cuomo is going to get squeezed.

Cuomo Throws SUNY To The Wolves When Asked About Buffalo Billion Corruption Probe

On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was "totally" confident in the head of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Alain Kaloyeros and downplayed the stories about subpoenas going out to SUNY and contractors connected to Cuomo's Buffalo Billion project.

Today he was still downplaying things, but that confidence he seemed to have in Kaloyeros on Friday was replaced by finger pointing at SUNY:

Cuomo on federal investigation into Buffalo Billion: "Literally all I know is what I read in the newspaper."

— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) September 20, 2015

Cuomo: "I was attorney general. I sent out a lot of subpoenas. It's your way of gathering information. So, you know, it is what it is."

— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) September 20, 2015

Cuomo points finger at SUNY when asked about Buffalo Billion investigation: "SUNY has administered the grant process."

— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) September 20, 2015

Cuomo on LPCiminelli's role in Buffalo Billion: "I had nothing to do with the selection whatsoever. That was handled by SUNY."

— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) September 20, 2015

Gee, that didn't take long, did it?

In 48 hours, we go from Cuomo's total confidence in SUNY and Alain Kaloyeros to Cuomo pointing the finger at SUNY and saying "Hey, this has got nothing to do with me!"

Not much honor among thieves, is there?

SUNY Subpoenaed In Cuomo Buffalo Billion Investigation

Cuomo says neither he nor a member of his administration got a subpoena from the feds in the Buffalo Billion corruption investigation reported first by the NY Post this morning.

But SUNY did:

ALBANY - U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is subpoening a State University of New York research facility as part of a probe into Gov. Cuomo's much-ballyhooed "Buffalo Billion" economic development plan, the Daily News has learned.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute, which is headed by the politically-connected Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, received subpoenas seeking documents and other information in recent months, sources familiar with the probe said.

In addition, the SUNY system has hired a criminal defense lawyer to represent SUNY Polytechnic Institute before Bharara's office, the sources said.

Bharara is looking into the contracts awarded for projects to build high tech businesses in economically-struggling Buffalo to see if any bid-rigging or other shenanigans took place, sources said. -

The Daily News reports Kaloyeros has ties to both Cuomo and former Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver.

Cuomo expressed confidence in Kaloyeros earlier today.

Cuomo downplayed it earlier, saying there was no "there" there, but this story gets more interesting by the hour.

More later.

Cuomo's SUNY Legacy: 30% Higher Tuition And More Hikes Coming

From Joseph Spector at Gannett:

ALBANY – As students at the State University of New York head back to class, they will be doing so with fewer classmates and higher tuition.

Enrollment at the 64 SUNY campuses has dropped 3.5 percent over the past five years, with the biggest dropoff at its 30 community colleges, a review of records by Gannett's Albany Bureau showed.

At the same time, tuition has increased 30 percent since 2010 to $6,470 a year for incoming freshmen this fall.

Tuition hikes every year for the last five years?

You betcha!

And more coming:

SUNY officials, however, head into the new semester facing uncertainty over future tuition increases as a five-year agreement with the state Legislature to increase tuition $300 a year, called SUNY 2020, expires next year.

Zimpher said SUNY would ask for a five-year renewal of the $300-a-year tuition increase, but may try to limit the increases to less than $300 each year.

"We're still at the limit of $300. We don't think it has to go to $300 for every one of our sectors. So our primary theme will be: roll it over. We had a 2020 goal," she said.

When I first started teaching fifteen years ago, a student who was living in public housing could attend a SUNY school and receive a degree with a minimal amount of debt.

Pell, TAP and FSEOG would cover all of the tuition and almost all of the room/board expenses.

They would have to take out a small subsidized loan a year to cover the rest - usually no more than $2000.

If the financing stayed the same for all four years, they were graduating with loan debt of less than $10,000 - not optimal, but certainly not prohibitive to starting a career, having a family, going to grad school, etc.

These days, those same students are getting loaded up with the maximum in both subsidized/unsubsidized Stafford loans ($5500), they may be getting a Perkins loan as well, the parents are getting a PLUS loan and even then it's not enough to cover tuition/room/board/books.

Since the amount in loans a student can take out goes up from freshman year and some of their loans are unsubsidized, after four years they're graduating from a SUNY with over $25,000 in debt - and that's not including the PLUS loans the parents got nailed with (which have to be paid back immediately, plus inteterst.)

Take a look at Stony Brook this year:

The total cost of attendance - tuition, fees, room and board - is $20,811.

That's before any other expenses - books, living expenses, clothing allowance, etc.

Here's how the financing works for a student in need in my experience as a high school teacher of seniors.

The maximum Pell grant award $5,775 a year, the TAP award is usually about $5,000 a year.  So that's $10,575.

Some students receive the FSEOG grant (which can be as high as $4,000), but I've never seen it higher than $1,500.

Let's add $1,500 to our student's grant total - $12,075.

The DIRECT costs of attendance - the money Stony Brook takes right away at the beginning - is $20,811 (broken up by semester, but you get the idea.)

Our student is $8,736 in the hole for the DIRECT costs.

They've gotten some work-study aid, but that money has to be worked for, won't come until much later in the semester, so that's no help here.

Stony Brook gives our student the maximum Stafford loans for a freshman - $5,500 - and that takes the student down to $3,236 still needed to cover expenses.

Stony Brook doles out $2,500 to the parent with a PLUS loan and hands out another $1,500 in a Perkins loan to the student.

The student now has all DIRECT costs paid for, though there's no money left over because origination fees for the loans (over 1% per loan) take away the excess.

How do they buy books, pay for living expenses, etc?

Well, you hope they've got a little money saved from a summer job or the parents have a little money to give them when they head off to school.

They'll have to work during the school year - that's not so bad, they have work study money, so they can get a job on campus - but money's going to be tight and they're looking at an awful lot of debt when they graduate (on top of which, the parents are looking at some debt while they're in school.)

This is an imaginary scenario, but it's one I see with high school seniors who come to me for college advisement.

This same student, if attending a CUNY, would come out with little to no debt because there are no room/board costs (though tuition and fees at CUNY have skyrocketed the last few years as well), so I often say think long and hard about attending a CUNY school, at least for the first two years, then going away as an upperclassman, to minimize the loan debt to themselves and their parents.

But these are young adults and young adults will do (and should do) what young adults want to do - an important component of the college experience is for students to learn how to make judicious financial decisions or understand there may be consequences when those decisions are made less judiciously.

So many often sign up for the SUNY because they want the "college experience" - the going away from home, the dorm-living, etc.

Also, the CUNY schools have gotten much more competitive in terms of admissions over the past few years and I have seen some students get into four year SUNY schools but get locked out of the four year CUNY schools (City, Hunter, Baruch, Brooklyn) and have to attend the SUNY school.

The Gannett story says while enrollment at SUNY has dropped 3.5% over the past five years (mostly due to the improving economy that sees fewer go to community college for retraining and some a choose a private school over a SUNY), employment at SUNY is up 2%.

SUNY claims the tuition increases - and after five straight years of them, they promise they'll be more - are necessary to keep up with costs, infrastructure, etc.

I understand that costs go up over the years (though I'm not sure what they're spending that money on is worthwhile, that's a post for another day), but passing the costs on to students and their families DIRECTLY instead of helping out by getting more money from the state, is NOT the way to pay for them.

Governor Cuomo, ever happy to keep state costs low and pass the buck onto working and middle class people, is getting some pushback from the Heavy Hearts in the Legislature:

ALBANY -- A bill before Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo represents the opening punch in a fight that will determine how much tuition will increase for 700,000 public college students and their families in coming years.

The bill demands that the Cuomo administration keep increases in state aid in closer pace with annual tuition hikes, which have jumped 30 percent in the past five years at the State University of New York and City University of New York. While state aid increased far more in those years compared with the preceding era of flat and reduced funding, it still grew at less than half the rate of tuition.

 The bill overwhelmingly passed by the State Legislature would require the state to cover inflationary and mandated costs at the State University of New York and City University of New York, such as utility bills, building rentals and salaries and benefits. It also would require the state budget to cover mandated costs for programs and equipment at SUNY's three teaching hospitals in Stony Brook, Brooklyn and Syracuse.

Legislators seek to require a greater state commitment than is in the 2011 law that created the "rational tuition" plan of annual increases. The plan was created to better fund the systems, after state aid cuts, to hire and retain professors to raise academic performance, and to avoid unpredictable spikes in tuition forced by crises.

The public universities were hit with deeper cuts than many state programs in the state fiscal crisis of 2008-2011.

In that 2011 law, the Cuomo administration agreed to a "maintenance of effort" in state aid. That law only required that the state not cut SUNY and CUNY aid from 2011 to 2016.

"The maintenance of effort was maintenance-of-effort-light," said Assembly Higher Education Committee chairwoman Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan), the bill's co-sponsor.

That tuition plan, however, sunsets next year. Cuomo, SUNY and CUNY are expected to ask the legislature to extend it in what will be one of the major initiatives of the 2016 legislative session.

"We are looking at what is actually needed to maintain a level of support," Glick said, a level "that ensures that the promise to students that, if they pay more -- and it's a big jump -- that the state will ensure the promise of more full-time faculty and additional sections of course work to make it easier to complete your degree in four years."

We'll see how this all plays out - you can pretty much bet Cuomo will look to pass most of the increased costs onto students and the Legislature, not exactly the bravest of assemblies in standing up to Cuomo, will agree to some "compromise" that continues to screw students and their families.

New York State used to have an excellent state university system that was very affordable.

The state continues to have an excellent university system, but the affordability part of the equation is by the wayside.

SUNY officials point out that SUNY remains cheaper than private schools in New York and some other state university systems.

That's swell.

But the affordability factor has still be eroded away over the years, helped greatly by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and that certainly doesn't help students from low income families having to take out $25,000+ in loans or their families who may be taking on debt for them as well.

Cuomo's always worried about his "legacy" - how he will be thought about in the future.

One big part of his legacy is what he hasn't done to help SUNY students and their families.

His SUNY legacy is, 30% higher tuition (and more hikes coming), SUNY costs up, and state aid held flat. 

A Great Way To Assess College Readiness

Workingmomfromnys had a reaction to the news that SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher wants to add more tests to the Endless Testing regime in order to test and track college readiness levels in high school:

Here is a way to assess college and career readiness.... give students more independent work and see how they do executing it and meeting deadlines. I bet that is a far better predictor of college or career "readiness" then any test....

Of course that sort of "college readiness" gauge doesn't make boatloads of cash for the Endless Testing regime or make the Gates Foundation technocrats happy, so it'll never fly.

SUNY Chancellor Envisions More Tests In High School To Track "College Readiness"

Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY:

ALBANY—SUNY chancellor Nancy Zimpher wants to pilot a new test in high schools for predicting students’ college readiness she says would offer more useful information than the standardized assessments already offered.

Zimpher was at a Clinton Global Initiative event in Denver earlier this week pitching her idea to investors. She has tentative commitments for $500,000 in in-kind donations, but needs $2 million to make the plan a reality, she said during an interview with Capital this week.

Assuming she secures the funding, SUNY would put out a request for proposals this fall to find a “diagnostic” test to pinpoint early where students are falling behind. Starting in fall 2016, the exam would be piloted in 10th and 11th grade classes in five New York school districts: Rochester and Yonkers, as well as rural districts near Binghamton, Plattsburgh and Geneva.

Partnering with local public and private colleges, high school teachers would use the test results to tailor individualized plans that aim to help struggling students improve and excelling students gain access to advanced coursework.

Zimpher sees these tests as more useful than the state tests so many parents and teachers are hostile too - and hundreds of thousands opted out of this year.

The "diagnostic" test has yet to be developed, so I fail to see how Zimpher's so sure this test will be more useful than the state tests.

Also the funding hasn't been secured for the program - is $2 million really enough to put such an expansive program in place?

We're talking the tests, the resources for the individualized plans that are supposed to help students, the "free" online "college readiness" course she plans to develop in concert with this testing program.

I know she's only looking to pilot this in five school districts, but given all that Zimpher claims this diagnostic test/college readiness program will do, I'm skeptical $2 million gets it off the ground.

I'm also skeptical that no matter how much she gets to run the program it will actually work.

Why not take the money she wants for testing, tracking, et al. and put it into smaller class sizes and other classroom resources?

Ah, but there's nothing "cutting edge" about that and so, alas, we get yet another testing/college readiness program that will cost millions and is doomed to inevitable failure.

You have to wonder, what matters more to educrats like Zimpher - the individuals she's charged with educating or the Endless Testing regime that feeds off all the testing/tracking she mandates?

Cuomo To Mandate All CUNY And SUNY Students Do Internships

Because what all students need is to be forced to do free labor in order to get a college degree, Governor Cuomo is going to mandate "experiential learning" for all CUNY and SUNY grads:

Part Q - Make experiential learning a graduation requirement at SUNY and CUNY

Purpose:

This bill would make experiential learning a mandatory requirement for graduation at the State University of New York and the City University of New York to ensure our public institutions of higher education connect students to employers and jobs.

Summary of Provisions and Statement in Support:

This bill would amend Education Law to require the Boards of Trustees of the State University of New York and the City University of New York to each pass a resolution  making experiential learning or applied learning activities a mandatory requirement for graduation.

To gain employment after graduation, it is no longer sufficient for a student simply to attain a degree or certificate in a specific field. Rather, students must also demonstrate work readiness and prior relevant experience to prospective employers. Experiential learning such as cooperative education ("co-op") and internships provide a win-win-win for New York's businesses, colleges, and -- most importantly -- students.

Budget Implications:

Enactment of this bill is necessary to implement the 2015-16 Executive Budget.

Effective Date: This bill would take effect April 1, 2015

Even better, notice this language:

Enactment of this bill is necessary to implement the 2015-16 Executive Budget.

Experiential learning may be a great idea but there's no reason why it needs to be mandated by the governor and shoved into the budget with a "Yay or Nay" vote from the Legislature.

Let each SUNY and CUNY program make it's own decisions on "experiential learning" and enact (or not) their own proposals accordingly.

The Stony Brook Statesman covered this story yesterday SUNY students are NOT happy with this AT ALL:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing for experiential learning through internships and/or part-time jobs as a new graduation requirement for all SUNY students in his proposed SUNY budget for next year.

Frederick Walter, the former president of the Stony Brook University Senate who currently serves on the SUNY Senate, said Stony Brook is ahead of the curve as the current Stony Brook Curriculum calls for experiential learning upon graduation; however, how the Governor describes experiential learning and how Stony Brook University does are completely different.

The SBC asks that students at some point learn through experience, whether it be through internships, jobs, research, scholarly activity or service learning, among other experiences. Cuomo’s plan would mandate experiential learning through internships.

According to Walter, an internship would definitely help a business or journalism major, but certain students would not benefit from working as an office intern, but they rather need experience in study labs doing research and experimentations.

Issues with experiential learning being mandated by the Governor go beyond a lack of an explanation of exactly what experiential learning is. There are over 60 SUNY campuses, not counting CUNY schools, which also fall under the list of SUNY campuses.

As Walter pointed out, this mandate would be “a system-wide thing. There are 400,000 students in the SUNY system. It is huge…there aren’t enough companies in the state of N.Y. offering internships.” Not only that, but with over 60 unique schools, mandating the same requirements for all would be foolish, Walter said.

Stony Brook University professor and Director of the Center for News Literacy Dean Miller noted additional issues. Experiential learning should be a requirement “only if students have access to it” and “so many students can’t afford internships because so many of them are unpaid,” he said.

Some are wondering just where Cuomo got his education expertise:

Requiring all students to gain an internship would force certain disadvantaged students into picking up unpaid spots, which is “lunacy,” Miller said. 

Cuomo has faced opposition for trying to mandate this.

Walter said many SUNY Senate members wonder why the governor is mandating curriculum, as no governor has done so previously. 

Cuomo is a politician not a professor, therefore he does not fully understand what he is mandating.

The response from Cuomo?

The Governor’s Press Office did not comment.

Since when does the governor get to act like dictator in New York State and mandate whatever he wants in the budget?

Since Pataki took the Legislature to court and won that power:

Cuomo is also potentially testing the limits with which policy matters can be included in appropriations bills, a matter that was first considered in the landmark ruling Pataki v. Silver.

That ruling allowed governor’s significant leeway in budget-making powers, which Gov. David Paterson used to his own advantage in ramming major spending cuts through the “extender” process when the budget was passed its April 1 due date.

Cuomo's shoving more and more policy into the budget in order to push legislation that he wants that might be more problematic if the Legislature were to vote on it straight up.

This "experiential learning" mandate is particularly problematic because, as the Stony Brook Statesman notes, there are 400,000 students in the SUNY system.

There are another 480,000 CUNY students - that means there an awful lot of internships students are going to be looking for in order too graduate if Cuomo gets his way.

If you thought Cuomo's education reform plans for K-12 are insane, take heart - so are his education reform plans for CUNY and SUNY.

Isn't it time we take back our democratic form of government from the autocratic Governor Cuomo?

SUNY's Number #1!!!

This should make Governor Cuomo proud:

A new analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education shows several campuses in the State University of New York system have some of the nation's highest rates of on-campus drug arrests.

The "Drugs On Campus" report by Project Know, a website that provides information about getting help for drug addictions, analyzed drug and alcohol arrests and disciplinary actions on campuses in 2013, the most recent data available. Project Know limited its analysis to colleges with at least 5,000 students.

SUNY New Paltz had the No. 1 per capita rate of students with drug arrests on campus -- 13.9 per 1,000 students, or 105 on-campus drug arrests in 2013.

...

 Eight of the top 50 schools with the highest rate of drug arrests per capita fall in the 64-campus SUNY system.

A SUNY spokesman claims SUNY has so many drug busts because they have actual campus police patrolling the campuses as opposed to many colleges which rely on local law enforcement.

Yeah, whatever.

A #1 ranking is still #1 no matter the reason.

Cuomo's Raised SUNY Tuition 25%+ Over Five Years - But More Increases Are Coming

I'd say this is unbelievable, but it's not:

SUNY WANTS MORE TUITION INCREASES—Capital’s Jessica Bakeman: “SUNY chancellor Nancy Zimpher wants to continue incremental tuition increases after the current plan sunsets in 2016, she told lawmakers during a legislative budget hearing on Tuesday.

Zimpher also asked lawmakers to allocate $50 million a year for the next five years to an investment fund that would support expanding the system’s online education offerings, strengthening the effectiveness of remediation programs and boosting degree completion.” http://bit.ly/17bE4dC

Cuomo says he's concerned about student loan debt and he's issued a plan that would allegedly help NY students pay for some of it for a couple of years.

You know what would be a better plan?

Stop raising SUNY tuition.

Provide more state money for SUNY instead of increasing tuition and fees on students and their families.

The hypocrisy of Andrew Cuomo knows no bounds.

He imposed a plan that raised tuition by more than 25% over five years.

And now if the hack running SUNY gets her way, they'll be even more tuition increases.

Cuomo's Coming For Community Colleges Next

From the Buffalo News:

Community colleges must do a better job teaming with employers to teach the specific skills and knowledge employers demand for their employees, instead of allowing students to rack up debt taking courses that don’t lead to jobs, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Tuesday in explaining some of his latest proposals for higher education.

Chiding community colleges for what he called “abysmal” graduation rates, Cuomo said his budget seeks to align what community colleges teach with the economic development goals of a particular region so that employers seeking skilled workers will have a steady supply.

Actually, students wouldn't rack up so much debt at community colleges if Cuomo didn't keep raising tuition at them, but that's neither here nor there in this.

Because what's worrisome is, the same geniuses who get to hold K-12 "accountable" are going to get to do the same for community colleges under Cuomo's plan:

Cuomo wants to shift the state’s support for community colleges, as well as for State University of New York campuses, from the current enrollment-driven formula to one that bases a portion of state aid on performance in areas such as access, completion rates and job placement. His budget proposal calls for 10 percent of base operating aid to be contingent on colleges and universities completing “performance improvement plans.”

Oh, goodie - more mandates, more accountability measures, more SED bureaucrats, more "competition" and, new to community colleges, a "performance improvement plan."

In Cuomo's view, there is nothing he and his state minions cannot solve with a few carrots and a whole lot of sticks.

Governor Cuomo Is Responsible For Higher College Costs At SUNY

Man, sometimes even the NY Post gets stuff right.

Take this editorial on college loans and the Cuomo proposal to have NY State pick up some of the loan for a couple of years for college graduates who remain in NY State but are make less than $50K a year:

On one thing President Obama and Gov. Cuomo are agreed: The answer to high tuition and crushing student debt is more money from the government.

Problem is, it’s precisely government dollars that are driving up the price of college tuition at a rate far faster than general inflation.

Right now, colleges have no skin in the loan game: If a kid drops out before earning his degree, or if she earns a degree that is worthless and so can’t get a job that pays enough to let her pay off her loans, that’s terrible for her.

But the school has already been paid.

The solution the Posties propose?

If you want to lower college costs, don’t just throw more money at the schools. Ensure the universities have some skin in the game — e.g., by forcing them to pick up part of the loans for a kid who fails out.

And make ’em work for their customers by demonstrating why their degrees are worth what they’re charging for them.

I don't know exactly how you do that second thing, since so many of the second and third tier private schools charge a LOT of money for a degree of dubious value that could be gotten from a state school for much less.

But I do know that making the schools pick up some of the loan costs of students who drop out might make these schools think twice about a) tuition costs and b) loading students up with loans.

But the best way to hold down college costs and give students a quality education is for NY State to provide MORE state aid to SUNY.

Under Governor Cuomo, the percentage of SUNY costs covered by state aid has dropped and the percentage of SUNY costs covered by tuition has increased.

Cuomo has instituted five years of tuition increases that will result in students paying more than 25% higher tuition and fee costs from before he became governor.

I posted this when Cuomo first released his loan debt relief plan and I want to post it again:

Governor Cuomo is the reason why SUNY costs are so high in NY State for college students.

I think the Post is right that colleges ought to have some skin in the game when it comes to student loans.

But I also think Governor Cuomo and the state Legislature ought to be providing more state aid to SUNY in order to provide opportunities for an affordable, quality education to all.

Cuomo Raised SUNY Tuition By More Than 25% - Now He Cares About Students With Loan Debt?

From the NY Times:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will propose legislation to ease the debt burden of thousands of college graduates, an administration official said.

Under the governor’s proposal, to be unveiled in his State of the State address on Wednesday, the state would cover two years of loan payments for graduates of New York State colleges who make less than $50,000 a year, continue to live in the state and are enrolled in the federal Pay as You Earn program, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal has not been released.

Roughly 60 percent of students who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in New York in 2013 took on debt, and the average amount was $26,381, according to a report by the Institute for College Access and Success. The report did not include graduates from for-profit colleges, who generally accumulate more debt.

The governor’s office projects that up to 7,100 people would benefit in the program’s first year, increasing to 24,000 by 2020, as more students hear about the program and enroll in Pay as You Earn to qualify. The state would pay an average of $3,500 toward each participant’s loans.

Students who finish two- or four-year degree programs in 2015 or later would be eligible for the assistance. Students who do not graduate — who statistically are more likely to be from low-income families — would not be helped.

Sounds fabulous, right?

Cuomo's looking to help students burdened with excessive student loan debt and a tough job market, particularly for newly-minted graduates.

Except if he cares so much about students and loan debt, why did he push to raise SUNY tuition by 40% at the the university centers and 25% at the other SUNY campuses back in 2011?

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday proposed increasing tuition by more than 25 percent over five years at most State University of New York campuses and by more than 40 percent at the university centers over the same period — measures he said would help parents with college planning and boost SUNY to top academic levels nationally.

His proposal, in the form of a bill, would add $4,370 over five years to the annual tuition at the university centers in Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany and Stony Brook, and add $2,330 to the tuition at SUNY's other 60 campuses. The governor's bill also would create SUNY's first two-tiered system for tuition.

When students and their families complained about the tax hike plan, Cuomo told them to suck it up and deal with "financial reality."

Ultimately the governor and the legislature settled on this for the hike:

The State University of New York Board of Trustees today approved a policy that will increase tuition $300 a year for the next five years, along with SUNY’s 2011-12 financial plan. Lawmakers gave final passage last Friday to legislation that authorizes SUNY to make the hikes, removing the topic of tuition from the annual state budget process for the next several years. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who agreed on legislation with the Senate and Assembly, has not signed the bill yet.

The increase will take effect this fall. Tuition for in-state undergraduate students at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses will increase from $4,970 to $5,270 this fall. Tuition for out-of-state undergraduate students will increase 10 percent a year over the five years.

The tuition hike total came to more than 25% over five years.  In addition, Cuomo refused to increase the percentage of state aid that covers costs at SUNY, so "SUNY students are paying an ever-increasing share of SUNY's costs, shifting the burden of public higher education to them and away from taxpayers."

Cuomo's refusal to do the state's part in covering SUNY costs sets up a need for future tuition and fee increases even after the five year, 25%+ hike is finished.

Now Cuomo releases this plan to help students with student loan burdens even as he has added to that burden by raising SUNY tuition more than 25% over five years and refused to raise the percentage of state aid to SUNY, thus setting up a need for future tuition and fee hikes.

Cuomo thinks people will have forgotten that he raised tuition 25%+ over five years and refused to do the state's share in covering SUNY costs, thus sowing the seeds of future hikes, and hail him as an advocate for students.

He may be right about that, I dunno.

But I'll do my best to remind some of them in my little corner of the blogosphere that while Cuomo's loan plan here is all well and fine, it would have been better if coupled with him coughing up more state aid for SUNY along with limiting the tuition hikes that have been instituted over the past five years.

Anybody Know Why SUNY Is Acquiring Military Equipment From The Pentagon?

Are some SUNY schools planning on going to war against other SUNY campuses?

Three SUNY campus police departments acquired military equipment, including high-powered rifles, through the Pentagon's 1033 program, according documents obtained by Muckrock.

The free federal program distributes excess materiel to state and local police departments, at the request of the law enforcement agency.

SUNY Old Westbury's campus police received three M16A1 rifles and an an armored truck.

SUNY Morrisville and SUNY Oneonta's campus police received three M14 rifles and an armored truck.

Do the campus police really need M14 rifles and armored trucks?

Seriously, some of these dudes shouldn't even have mace.

Are tanks and planes next on the acquisition list?

SUNY Chancellor To Promote Business Role In Education

From State of Politics:

Also at 10 a.m., SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and IBM Foundation president Stanley Litow discuss the role that business should play in education during the Business Council’s conference, The Sagamore, 110 Sagamore Rd., Bolton Landing.

Because Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg and a host of edu-entrepreneurs, hedge fundies, and tech and textbook companies don't have enough of a role in education already.

Zimpher told a bunch of billionaires yesterday about her plans for the indoctrination of children:

At the opening dinner of the Business Council of New York State's annual retreat at the Sagamore, a gilded island resort about halfway up the west side of Lake George...SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher spoke with attendees about her cradle to career initiative.

Cradle to career initiative.

That has an ominous sound to my ears, especially when you know the "educators" creating this initiative are, like Nancy Zimpher, nothing more than shills for the business criminals.

SUNY Chancellor Says She's Not On Common Core Payroll

Behind a Capital NY paywall, but the Common Core-shilling SUNY chancellor answered the question I had this morning:

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said she’s not getting paid for her participation in a national campaign she joined this week to promote the Common Core standards.

Of course the next question that comes to mind, if we take Ms. Zimpher at her word that she's not taking cash to shill for Common Core, is what future benefits might she expect for the work she's doing hawking Common Core?

SUNY Chancellor Shills For Common Core

As criticism and opposition to the Common Core mount, the SUNY chancellor is doubling down on her support:

A coalition of higher education institutions Tuesday waded into the national debate over Common Core education standards, arguing that the higher standards in math, reading and writing will help remedy the problem of too many unprepared students entering college and universities.

State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, who in recent months has become a highly visible advocate of the Common Core standards, joined others in announcing the creation of “Higher Ed for Higher Standards.”

The coalition of more than 200 colleges and universities from 33 states, including all of the SUNY colleges and universities, defended the need for the Common Core and will counter the “misinformation” about the state-based efforts to improve student achievement and learning, Zimpher said.

Anybody know how much Gates Foundation payola is making its way to either SUNY or Chancellor Zimpher?

You rarely see anybody these days shill for the CCSS who isn't on the payroll or going to benefit in some way from the education reform agenda.

SUNY Chancellor Breaks Out The Cliches For Common Core Support

From Politics on the Hudson:

The State University of New York Board of Trustees today passed a resolution in support of the controversial Common Core teaching standards, saying the tougher tests will better prepare students for college.

...

“Forty-six percent of the state’s high school graduates who attend college in New York enroll at SUNY each year, and far too many are simply not ready,” said Board Chairman H. Carl McCall, the former state comptroller, in a statement. “SUNY has a vested interest in the advancement of higher standards brought on by the Common Core. The better prepared students are to take on college-level work, the more successful they will be in college and career.”

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher has also advocated for stronger secondary education, saying half of all students at SUNY’s community colleges enroll in at least one remedial course at a cost of $70 million per year.

“The Common Core Standards raise the bar for educators and students, and in today’s competitive and increasingly global economy, anything less would be a disservice to our youth,” Zimpher said in a statement. “The Common Core will have a significant and lasting impact on student comprehension and achievement while re-positioning our state – and ultimately, our nation – as a global leader in education.”

The SUNY people are still using the Common Core boilerplate from three years ago.

Many people now see the Common Core as dumbed-down standards, specifically developed to teach students just enough to do the paperwork in the offices but not enough to question if any of it is really important.

The emphasis on rote learning, text-to-text writing (but never text-to-self because no one gives a shit what students think or feel about the text), argumentative writing replacing creative projects in every class including art and vocational classes - it's all about developing a generation of Americans who can follow orders, follow outlines and do what the bosses - and nothing else.

These SUNY people are political functionaries all dining off the same corporate-funded Common Core trough so it's not a surprise they're still parroting this jive.

Andrew Cuomo's Budget Causes SUNY Tuition Increases

From Newsday:

Students at Suffolk County Community College will face a tuition increase of $250 this fall, bringing the annual charges to $4,390 at the two-year school.

The tuition hike is part of the $208.4 million 2014-15 operating budget that college trustees sent to county officials Friday.

The increase comes even though the Bellone administration agreed after two days of talks with college officials to a 2 percent increase in the county share of college costs -- or $780,000. College trustees, in the budget vote Thursday night, also included a one-shot use of $4.3 million from the college's $24.9 million reserve fund to keep tuition from rising further.

"Two hundred and fifty dollars may not sound like much unless you don't have it," said trustee Jim Morgo, head of the trustee budget committee, noting the college's mission is to provide affordable education where many students come from "very challenging economic backgrounds."

...

College officials blamed the increased tuition on the state, which increased operating aid for each full-time student by only $75. College presidents had sought $250 and the State Senate had proposed $125. The Assembly, which had sought a $50 increase, compromised with the Senate on $75, to make the per student aid $2,497. In all, the state share is 25.9 percent of college costs.

County aid has remained flat over the past six years with just a 1% increase in aid to SCCC in that time frame, another contributing factor to the cost of SCCC tuition going up next year.

Tax breaks for rich people, tuition hikes for community college students - that should be an Andrew Cuomo campaign ad.

The Assembly and Senate are to blame too.

But this is Cuomo's budget, the one he's bragging about every chance he gets, so the buck and the responsibility for it lie with him.

Andrew Cuomo's Hypocrisy Over SUNY

Governor Cuomo announced the following plan yesterday:

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Sunday the state will expand the opportunity for inmates to get college degrees as a way to keep them from returning to prison and save tax dollars.

Cuomo said the state pays $60,000 a year to keep a prisoner incarcerated and 40 percent return to prison. Current college programs in prison cost taxpayers just $5,000 a year per prisoner, he said.

Cuomo made the announcement at the annual meeting of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus in Albany that represents a key constituency for Cuomo, who is running for re-election.

...

The administration also doesn't know how much the whole program would cost or how many prisoners could be served, but said the cost will be covered in the 2014-15 state budget due April 1.

"Existing programs show that providing a college education in our prisons is much cheaper for the state and delivers far better results," Cuomo said Sunday."Someone who leaves prison with a college degree has a real shot at a second lease on life because their education gives them the opportunity to get a job and avoid falling back into a cycle of crime," Cuomo said Sunday.

Cuomo said the state will seek to provide college-level education in 10 of its prisons. While the state is seeking competitive bids from private institutions, those from SUNY and CUNY also would be accepted.

Leaving aside that Cuomo is only proposing this program because it is a re-election year and he wants support from the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus in Albany, I think what Cuomo is proposing is a good thing.

I agree that giving someone in a prison an opportunity to earn a college degree may give them employment opportunities they would not have had otherwise and I for one am happy to have my tax money go to such a program - so long as the schools that are involved are SUNY or CUNY schools.

Cuomo says the state will be taking competitive bids from private institutions, but I have a difficult time seeing how private colleges - even so-called "non-profits" - can compete with SUNY or CUNY on tuition:

Tuition for traditional students is $6,910 a year at the State University of New York and $5,800 at the City University of New York.

But Cuomo's education people who came up with this program no doubt have deep ties to some private institutions, so the state says "competitive bids" will be taken from those colleges too.

We'll see if this college program for prisoners doesn't become some Cuomo giveaway program to private colleges (which Cuomo seems to like better than SUNY or CUNY) or, even worse, for-profit "colleges" like Berkeley College or the University of Phoenix.

A close eye needs to be kept on this stuff.

In addition, one other point I want to make about Cuomo's claims that a college education gives an individual opportunities they might not otherwise have - if this is so, why has he raised tuition at SUNY so much during his tenure as governor?

Here was the plan he announced for tuition increases back in 2011:

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, suggesting that what he sees as rock-bottom tuition rates could be holding back the ambitions of the state’s public universities, introduced legislation on Thursday that would sharply increase what students pay to attend the State University of New York.

Mr. Cuomo’s proposal would raise in-state undergraduate tuition, now $4,970, by up to 5 percent annually for the next five years, and by as much as 8 percent annually at SUNY’s research universities in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook. The increase would affect 175,000 students on the 29 four-year campuses SUNY operates.

The legislation appealed to university presidents, who have long sought modest, automatic annual increases, rather than having to plead their case every few years for often-sharper tuition increases.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, described his proposal as an economic development initiative for the state, arguing that the added revenue would allow campus administrators to bolster research programs.

“The current tuition system does not serve our students, schools or state,” the governor said in a statement. “This bill brings rationality to the SUNY tuition system by allowing students and parents to reasonably plan for college expenses, instead of being subject to dramatic tuition increases and uncertainty.”

Cuomo and previous governors have consistently cut state aid to SUNY over the years, starving the colleges and forcing them to rely more and more on tuition to operate - then when relying on tuition became untenable for the colleges, Cuomo said the "rock-bottom" tuition had ghettoized the SUNY system and "held back the ambitions of the state's public universities," so he was going to allow tuition increases every year for the five consecutive years (never mind that SUNY colleges have consistently raised all kinds of fees over the years to make up for the lack of tuition inreases.)

Cuomo's hypocrisy here - cutting SUNY aid even as he claims the lack of tuition increases has hurt SUNY colleges - is par for the course from this hypocritical governor - this year he once again held back state aid from the SUNY system, thus setting up the need for future tuition increases that will be borne by the state system's students.

Couple that with the new college program for prisoners that may see state money head the way of private institutions and what we have here is a governor of the State of New York who is doing his very best to harm the State University of New York, starve the colleges for funds and force higher and higher tuition increases on students.

I know that my students who attend SUNY's all have to take on debt to do so - as much as $8,000 a year -  and these are students who are eligible for full Pell grants and TAP.

After four years at that borrowing rate, they are going to graduate with at least $35,000 in debt (taking into consideration additional tuition and fee hikes and interest on unsubsidized loans.)

It seems if New York students want an affordable college education in Andrew Cuomo's New York State, they have to go to prison to get it.