LUPINACCI REMINDS COLLEGE STUDENTS OF AID ASSISTANCE

I understand from experience the financial stress that is placed on an individual attending a higher education institution. In fact, as a college professor, I come face-to-face with this reality each time I am in the classroom. Throughout my academic career, I have heard students express their uncertainty and anxiety about the financial hole these costs have placed them in. Around this time each year, this angst is renewed among college students and their families as they encounter the burdensome toll of a college degree.

Throughout Long Island, college students and their families must once again pay keen attention to their pocketbooks, as the cost of education becomes paramount. It is with each student, and their financial future in mind, that I renew my call for legislation which reduces the burden of higher education on our residents. It is time that the New York State Assembly Majority addresses this rising issue, as student debt continues to soar to all-time highs across the nation.

As the Ranking Member on the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, I have been a champion for scholarship programs that provide students and their families an affordable pathway to college. I also have fought for avenues that give New York’s brightest young minds the opportunity to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math through low-cost education at the State and City Universities of New York.

Higher education is the means by which today’s youth can acquire the skills necessary to bring businesses, cutting-edge technologies, and prosperity back to New York State. During this upcoming legislative session, I will continue to fight on behalf of college students to ensure that adequate aid is available for all those pursuing a degree.

We must no longer stand idly by while the innovators of tomorrow become fiscally paralyzed by college indebtedness. During this upcoming session, we must push for a 21st Century approach to higher education, beginning with innovative and effective methods to combat higher-education costs.

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