Governor Hochul Announces Launch of Historic $150 Million Expansion of Tuition Assistance Program to Part-time

 For the First Time, Part-Time Students Taking Six or More Credits Per Semester Can Receive Tuition Assistance Program Aid Starting This Fall

Approximately 75,000 Additional Students Eligible for Aid with TAP Expansion

Governor Hochul: "Today, we're talking about a program that is literally going to transform the lives of so many New Yorkers, to give them the key to unlock the possibility of a better future by getting a college degree My first budget just negotiated on the books, the ink is barely dry, but with $31.5 billion, the highest level of state aid ever into education and $8.2 billion into higher education."

Hochul: "I'll invest in people right here on this campus and throughout this city and this stateThat is my commitment as the Governor of New York. We're coming back, we're coming back strong and how we're doing it is unleashing the full potential of every single person, with making sure that an education, a college degree, a SUNY or CUNY degree is no longer elusive for them ever again in the State of New York."

 Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the launch of the historic $150 million expansion of New York State's popular Tuition Assistance Program, which will now provide TAP to approximately 75,000 additional students who are pursuing their degree part-time. Expanding Part-Time TAP to fully part-time learners creates pathways to an affordable education for individuals of all ages who are often balancing other responsibilities such as a family and work. Full-time TAP awards can be up to $5,665 annually for a full-time student; part-time TAP will be available on a pro-rated basis to eligible students taking six to 11 credits per semester with no full-time prerequisite.  

You might be noticing an interesting backdrop here. This is called the Double Rainbows of Tatooine, and I was just wondering, does anyone know the significance of Tatooine? Nobody? [Audience responds] Star Wars! Who was born, not born there -- he was born on a ship -- but who was raised there? [Audience responds] Luke Skywalker. I watched a lot of Star Wars. I think it first launched in maybe '77 and I had younger brothers, 10 years younger than me, 13 years younger, and we all played around with our lightsabers and of course, I was Princess Leia at the time. But it's significant because I think of the immortal words of the great philosopher, Yoda, and he said once, "Do or not do, but there is no try. Do or not do." 

Today, we do. Today, we do something significant. Today, we're talking about a program that is literally going to transform the lives of so many New Yorkers, to give them the key to unlock the possibility of a better future by getting a college degree at either a CUNY or SUNY institution. So, when this institution opened back in 1963, the classrooms are scattered all over in offices and hotel rooms and unusable spaces, but there was the knowledge and a reckoning that people in this community needed to have access to that key, that ticket out. 

So, this was founded without a campus, more of a concept, more of an ideal, but the purpose was to help students at every stage of their lives, from every background attain the opportunity to have a higher education. So, today BMCC has a great success story, over 27,000 students. It's extraordinary. Almost two-thirds female. I'm kind of partial to females. We have to get more women this education and they come from 100 different countries. I mean, it's all happening right here. This is so exciting. So, I was last year as Lieutenant Governor, but I'm really, really pleased to be here today because now that I am Governor, it's more than just caring for this state. It's about preparing this state and the people who call themselves New Yorkers. And people come here to learn. 

They sometimes have to leave a current job when they see that there's not as much opportunity without having that degree and that ticket. So, what happens in places like this is a transformation, not just of the person in that moment as they're able to be exposed to so many new ideas and teachers, and God bless the teachers, the professors here, the entire team. They also can make a difference for their families. Their families are forever altered, and I know what this is all about because my own family was transformed because of a college degree. My grandparents came from great poverty in Ireland. They came here with nothing. They were teenagers. Grandpa worked as some migrant farm worker in the weed fields of South Dakota. Grandma and Grandpa got married very young and became domestic workers in Chicago still trying to find that path. And that path came when they found a job at the steel plant in Buffalo - Lackawanna. My dad worked at that same steel plant, his brothers worked at that same steel plant. But what made the difference for my father when he was again, very young, married my mom, they lived in a trailer park where my brother lived and we ran out of room when I came a year later. What made a difference in my family's life was my dad's ability to be making steel, work in a steel plant, but also receive a college degree at the same time. A young father, couple of - I was on the way when he got that degree, but that transformed our personal life story. And a generation later, their daughter is the Governor of New York. I want that opportunity, that possibility to be available for every single person who calls New York home. This is personal to me as the leader of this state.

So, what can CUNY and SUNY do? They can hire more faculty. That is a good thing. How about hiring more faculty? They can improve the campus operations. And today, we're talking about something that has been long overdue, and that is expanding the Tuition Assistance Program to support part-time students for the first time ever so they can further their careers. New York's Tuition Assistance Program, TAP as we all knew it growing up, we all wanted to get that TAP award, is one of the leading financial aid programs in the country. And since 1974, when it just started, over $30 billion has been invested in 6 million New Yorkers allowing them to get skills, a degree, an education to benefit themselves. Back then the first year of TAP, the average award was a whopping $335, probably a lot of money back then. Fast forward half a century, the last year over 250,000 New Yorkers took advantage of this and the average award was $3,300. So, we've gone up exponentially. 

But TAP has always been there as that way to bridge the gap between what you might have in your family, especially families who don't have much and the cost of your tuition. It's supposed to help you cross that bridge, cross that bridge to. And that's what we've done. We know TAP works, but yet, since its inception it's been too limited, it has been too limited. And the Chancellor talked to me about how many years people have raised this, been fighting for this to say, why can't we expand it? To think that someone has the ability to go to college full time and not have any income coming in is just unrealistic. 

So, now we're righting the wrong. And now the students who are eligible, no longer do you have to be earning 12 credits a semester, which was the requirement before, a full course load. These requirements are now going to be available to many more students. And think about who we're talking about. Who are we focusing on? Students with families with beautiful children like Noah, people who have to take care of their own parents or their own grandparents. We have so many people who have other responsibilities. People just have to be able to take care of themselves. And largely, the ones affected and excluded from this opportunity were students of color, immigrant students, and female students, who were the ones who are always the ones having to take care of everybody. So, that was bad, didn't work, and it didn't help us prepare the workforce for the jobs that are waiting today and tomorrow. So, we're eliminating all those requirements, expanding part-time TAP so it covers part-time students and those taking as few as six credits a semester at a SUNY or CUNY school or a not-profit college are now eligible for TAP.  

And it kicks in right away. Year one, they enroll, don't have to wait any longer. Okay. We're going to hear about, it's actually working. And our view is, we invest in people. And I'm announcing countless infrastructure projects and making sure that we get rid of the potholes and fix our streets and our roads and bridges and our transportation, our public transit, but the best investments are not in the physical infrastructure, it is the human infrastructure, investing in human beings. And I can't think of a better way to do this, than what we're doing right here right now and saying part-time students matter. We have to lift you up so you can be part of not just the American dream, but the New York Dream that is far sweeter. It is more diverse, it is more welcoming, it is more inclusive. And that's exactly what we're doing here today, $150 million investment. Initially, projections are it'll help over 75,000 students, and I hope it even helps more, over 75,000 right off the bat. So, they don't have to choose from putting their lives on hold and pursuing an affordable education. So at a place like this, BMCC, tuition can cost $2,400 a semester. Now there's over 6,000 students eligible right here today on this campus to receive this.  

So, it might be part-time TAP, but it's a full time priority of mine, making sure that we respond to the needs of the employers. And I will tell you, my friends, I walk the streets of the city daily. You don't recognize me most of the time, do you? That's alright. Kind of short, kind of blending into the crowd. That's alright. But it allows me to be out there and see things that others don't see, that normally someone in my position wouldn't see. I'm feeling an energy coming back. I'm feeling the vitality of New York that had been suppressed for two long, hard years. I know it's there, and I'm also talking to employers and how we're bringing people back. But they say to me, their number-one concern is finding the talent because the jobs are waiting for them. You know how different this is from when I was growing up, up in that steel town? There were no jobs to be had. That's why all my siblings left Western New York in search of jobs. I'm the last one out of a big family.