Cuomo Proposes Free College Education For NY Dreamers

While the politicians in Washington, DC put off dealing with the fate of undocumented young people who came to the United States as children, known as “Dreamers,” for the time being, Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to help them further their education with free tuition to public colleges. Undocumented students have been eligible for in-state tuition at SUNY and CUNY schools since 2002 if they graduated from a New York high school or received a GED in the state.

Now, in his budget for 2019, Cuomo is upping the ante with the DREAM Act, that would give undocumented students access to the Tuition Assistance Program, as well as state-administered scholarships and loans.

“[E]ach year, many talented students who graduate from New York high schools remain unable to fulfill their potential simply because the cannot afford the tuition and lack access to tuition assistance to help pay for school,” the governor said in his 2019 budget briefing book.

“The DREAM Act will give undocumented students access to the new Excelsior Scholarship, the Tuition Assistance Program, as well as other state-administered scholarships,” he said.

“An investment in young immigrants’ futures is an investment in New York’s future,” Cuomo said.

Under Cuomo’s budget proposal, the Excelsior Scholarship income eligibility threshold will increase to include New Yorkers with household incomes up to $110,000. An estimated 27,000 students will be supported with free tuition through the scholarship program.

Along with other sources of tuition assistance, an estimated 210,000 students will attend SUNY and CUNY tuition-free, according to the governor.

Cuomo may have a hard time getting this tuition-free plan for Dreamers enacted because of state Senate Republicans.

Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif told the New York Post that “we don’t support giving free college tuition to people who are here illegally.”

There are about 42,000 individuals in New York covered by the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to data compiled by governing.com.

Zeltzyn Sanchez is one of them.

The 19-year-old Port Chester resident came to the U.S. at the age of 6 from Mexico. She has been accepted at John Jay College of Criminal Justice which is part of the City University of New York.

Sanchez is waiting to hear whether she’s been accepted into the prestigious Macaulay Honors Program at CUNY which would provide full tuition for her.

She thinks the governor's plan is a good idea, but that it won’t work out for everyone.

“Most of the people going to college need to work while they are in school,” Sanchez said, adding that there is minimum of course requirements in order to qualify for tuition assistance.

Still she thinks it’s good to know the governor is supportive of Dreamers even if there is uncertainty on the national level.

Sanchez became eligible for DACA three weeks ago.

“I have two years now,” she said. “What happens after that, who knows.”

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.