NY State Senate Bill 2021-S167

Senate Bill S167

2021-2022 Legislative Session

Relates to freezing tuition costs at state and city universities for four years; and requiring a report examining the affordability of such public institutions

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Higher Education Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 05, 2022	referred to higher education
Jan 06, 2021	referred to higher education

2021-S167 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Higher Education
Law Section:: Education Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §§355, 6206 & 667, Ed L
Versions Introduced in 2019-2020 Legislative Session:: S7615

2021-S167 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Relates to freezing tuition costs at state and city universities for four years; increases TAP awards by $400 each year for four years; requires a report examining the affordability of such public institutions and potential funding for eliminating the gap between public funding and actual tuition and costs.

2021-S167 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S167

SPONSOR: THOMAS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to tuition costs at state
and city universities and increasing tuition assistance program awards;
and to require a report examining the affordability of such public
institutions

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To freeze tuition at state and city universities pending a report on
their affordability.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Amends the education law to prohibit SUNY from increasing
tuition, fees or other charges starting in the 2021-2022 academic year
and ending in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Section 2: Amends the education law to prohibit CUNY from increasing
tuition, fees or other charges starting in the 2021-2022 academic year
and ending in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Section 3: Amends the education law to prohibit CUNY from increasing
tuition, fees or other charges starting in the 2021-2022 academic year
and ending in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Section 4: Directs SUN? and CUNY board of trustees to study the growing
difference between the state's tuition assistance program funding and
actual tuition, fees, and administrative costs at SUNY and CUNY. The
report will investigate and propose funding sources for eliminating the
gap between full funding and actual costs. The board of trustees must
solicit input from the student government organizations. The report will
be submitted within six months of the effective date of this act.

Section 5: Amends the education law to incrementally increase the maxi-
mum award provided by the tuition assistance program from $5,165 to
$7,165.

Section 6: The effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Public universities provide many low-and moderate-income families access
to college at an affordable price. However, over the last 25 years,
there has been a decline in federal and state funding of public univer-
sities in the United States.

Underfunding by the state results in an increased financial burden on
SUNY and CUNY students. From 2008 to 2018, tuition at four-year public
colleges in the United States increased by 37%, and since 1987 the same
figure has increased by 213%. The real incomes of most Americans have
not risen at this pace, which has forced many Americans to rely on
loans, exasperating the student debt crisis.  An increase in tuition
will further widen "the TAP Gap," the growing difference between the
state's tuition assistance program funding for students and actual
tuition costs. The maximum amount of TAP that can be awarded to a
student each year is $5,165, while the annual cost of attendance at a
four-year college is $6,730, leaving a yearly gap of $1,565 that
colleges need to fund by slashing existing programs and services.

Before 2011, low-income SUNY and CUNY students would have their tuition
costs covered in full by TAP, with colleges receiving adequate TAP
payments to help cover costs for hiring new staff, funding libraries and
investing in student support services. The gap between what the state
pays for TAP at SUNY and CUNY and the actual cost of tuition at SUNY and
CUNY has left colleges with a $139 million total shortfall in funding
statewide.

The Rational Tuition Policy proposed in the Executive Budget allows the
Boards of SUNY and CUNY to continue to increase undergraduate tuition by
$200 each academic year. Annual tuition increases only widen the gap and
force students to shoulder the cost of decreasing state expenditures in
the form of poorer services and higher tuition costs.

This bill freezes SUNY and CUNY tuition though academic year ending in
2025. By freezing tuition, the growth of the TAP gap ($139 million) will
remain stagnant for the first time in five years, which will halt the
trend of increasing costs and declining services. During the tuition
freeze, SUNY and CUNY boards are required to study and develop a report
on the best methods to close the TAP gap. This bill also raises the
maximum award that can be provided by the TAP.  Closing this gap will
result in the stabilization of both tuition costs and school services
provided by SUNY and CUNY, which will positively impact New Yorkers
pursing higher education at public institutions.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2020: S.7615-A (Thomas) - Amend and recommit to Higher Education Commit-
tee.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2021-S167 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                    167
 
                        2021-2022 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                                (PREFILED)
 
                              January 6, 2021
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  THOMAS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Higher Education
 
 AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to tuition costs at state
   and  city  universities  and  increasing  tuition  assistance  program
   awards;  and  to  require a report examining the affordability of such
   public institutions
 
   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.  The  opening paragraph of paragraph h of subdivision 2 of
 section 355 of the education law, as separately amended by chapters  552
 and 616 of the laws of 1985, is amended to read as follows:
   To  regulate  the  admission of students, prescribe the qualifications
 for their  continued  attendance,  regulate  tuition  charges  where  no
 provision is otherwise made therefor by law, and regulate other fees and
 charges, curricula and all other matters pertaining to the operation and
 administration of each state-operated institution in the state universi-
 ty;  PROVIDED,  HOWEVER,  THAT  THE TRUSTEES SHALL NOT HAVE THE POWER TO
 INCREASE TUITION, FEES OR OTHER CHARGES COMMENCING WITH THE TWO THOUSAND
 TWENTY-ONE--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-TWO ACADEMIC YEAR AND ENDING IN THE  TWO
 THOUSAND TWENTY-FIVE--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX ACADEMIC YEAR.
   §  2.  The  opening  paragraph  of  paragraph  (a) of subdivision 7 of
 section 6206 of the education law, as amended by section 2 of  part  JJJ
 of chapter 59 of the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
   The  board  of  trustees shall establish positions, departments, divi-
 sions and faculties; appoint and in accordance with  the  provisions  of
 law fix salaries of instructional and non-instructional employees there-
 in; establish and conduct courses and curricula; prescribe conditions of
 student admission, attendance and discharge; and shall have the power to
 determine  in  its  discretion  whether  tuition shall be charged and to
 regulate tuition charges, and other instructional and  non-instructional
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD02801-01-1

 S. 167                              2
 
 fees  and  other  fees  and charges at the educational units of the city
 university; PROVIDED, HOWEVER, THAT THE  TRUSTEES  SHALL  NOT  HAVE  THE
 POWER TO INCREASE TUITION, FEES OR OTHER CHARGES COMMENCING WITH THE TWO
 THOUSAND TWENTY-ONE--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-TWO ACADEMIC YEAR AND ENDING IN
 THE TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-FIVE--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX ACADEMIC YEAR. The
 trustees  shall  review  any proposed community college tuition increase
 and the justification for such increase. The justification  provided  by
 the  community college for such increase shall include a detailed analy-
 sis of ongoing operating costs, capital, debt service expenditures,  and
 all  revenues.  The  trustees  shall  not  impose a differential tuition
 charge based upon need or income.  All  students  enrolled  in  programs
 leading  to  like  degrees  at  the  senior  colleges shall be charged a
 uniform rate of tuition, except for differential tuition rates based  on
 state  residency. Notwithstanding any other provision of this paragraph,
 the trustees may authorize the setting of a separate category of tuition
 rate, that shall be greater than the tuition rate for resident  students
 and  less  than  the  tuition  rate  for non-resident students, only for
 students enrolled in distance learning courses who are not residents  of
 the state; provided, however, that:
   §  3.  The  opening  paragraph  of  paragraph  (a) of subdivision 7 of
 section 6206 of the education law, as amended by section  4  of  chapter
 437 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:
   The  board  of  trustees shall establish positions, departments, divi-
 sions and faculties; appoint and in accordance with  the  provisions  of
 law fix salaries of instructional and non-instructional employees there-
 in; establish and conduct courses and curricula; prescribe conditions of
 student admission, attendance and discharge; and shall have the power to
 determine  in  its  discretion  whether  tuition shall be charged and to
 regulate tuition charges, and other instructional and  non-instructional
 fees  and  other  fees  and charges at the educational units of the city
 university; PROVIDED, HOWEVER, THAT THE  TRUSTEES  SHALL  NOT  HAVE  THE
 POWER TO INCREASE TUITION, FEES OR OTHER CHARGES COMMENCING WITH THE TWO
 THOUSAND TWENTY-ONE--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-TWO ACADEMIC YEAR AND ENDING IN
 THE TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-FIVE--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX ACADEMIC YEAR. The
 trustees  shall  review  any proposed community college tuition increase
 and the justification for such increase. The justification  provided  by
 the  community college for such increase shall include a detailed analy-
 sis of ongoing operating costs, capital, debt service expenditures,  and
 all  revenues.  The  trustees  shall  not  impose a differential tuition
 charge based upon need or income.  All  students  enrolled  in  programs
 leading  to  like  degrees  at  the  senior  colleges shall be charged a
 uniform rate of tuition, except for differential tuition rates based  on
 state  residency. Notwithstanding any other provision of this paragraph,
 the trustees may authorize the setting of a separate category of tuition
 rate, that shall be greater than the tuition rate for resident  students
 and  less  than  the  tuition  rate  for non-resident students, only for
 students enrolled in distance learning courses who are not residents  of
 the  state.  The  trustees  shall  further  provide  that the payment of
 tuition and fees by any student who is not a resident of New York state,
 other than a non-immigrant alien within the meaning of paragraph (15) of
 subsection (a) of section 1101 of title 8 of  the  United  States  Code,
 shall  be  paid  at  a  rate  or charge no greater than that imposed for
 students who are residents of the state if such student:
   § 4. The boards of trustees of the state university of  New  York  and
 the city university of New York shall study, or cause to be studied, the
 growing  difference between the state's tuition assistance program fund-

 S. 167                              3
 
 ing for students and actual tuition, fees and  administrative  costs  at
 the  state's  and city's public universities. Such report shall investi-
 gate and propose funding sources for eliminating the  gap  between  full
 funding  and  actual  costs.  In  conducting such study the boards shall
 solicit input from representatives of student  government  organizations
 from among the state and city universities. Such report shall be submit-
 ted  to  the  governor,  the  temporary  president of the senate and the
 speaker of the assembly within one year of the effective  date  of  this
 act.
   §  5. Subitem (c) of item 1 of clause (A) of subparagraph (i) of para-
 graph a of subdivision 3 of section 667 of the education law, as amended
 by section 1 of part U of chapter 56 of the laws of 2014, is amended  to
 read as follows:
   (c)  For  students  first receiving aid: in two thousand--two thousand
 one [and thereafter,] five thousand dollars, [except  starting]  in  two
 thousand  [fourteen-two] FOURTEEN--TWO thousand fifteen and [thereafter]
 BEFORE TWO THOUSAND TWENTY such students shall receive five thousand one
 hundred sixty-five dollars, BEGINNING IN  TWO  THOUSAND  TWENTY-ONE--TWO
 THOUSAND  TWENTY-TWO  SUCH  STUDENTS  SHALL  RECEIVE  FIVE THOUSAND NINE
 HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS, BEGINNING IN  TWO  THOUSAND  TWENTY-TWO--TWO
 THOUSAND  TWENTY-THREE  SUCH  STUDENTS  SHALL RECEIVE SIX THOUSAND THREE
 HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS, BEGINNING IN TWO THOUSAND  TWENTY-THREE--TWO
 THOUSAND  TWENTY-FOUR  SUCH  STUDENTS  SHALL  RECEIVE SIX THOUSAND SEVEN
 HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS, BEGINNING IN TWO  THOUSAND  TWENTY-FOUR--TWO
 THOUSAND  TWENTY-FIVE  AND  THEREAFTER SUCH STUDENTS SHALL RECEIVE SEVEN
 THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS; or
   § 6. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the  amend-
 ments  to  the  opening  paragraph  of paragraph (a) of subdivision 7 of
 section 6206 of the education law made by section two of this act  shall
 not  affect  the  expiration and reversion of such paragraph pursuant to
 section 16 of chapter 260 of the laws of 2011,  as  amended,  when  upon
 such date the provisions of section three of this act shall take effect.

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