Res 1020-2019

By Council Members Cabrera and Cornegy Whereas, In April 2017, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Excelsior Scholarship, a first-in-the-nation program that aims to make City University of New York (CUNY) and State University of New York (SUNY) colleges tuition-free for families making up to $125,000 per year; and Whereas, At the time of announcement, Governor Cuomo stated that "nearly 80 percent or more than 940,000 families with college-aged children across New York would qualify for tuition-free college at SUNY and CUNY," according to his press release; and Whereas, In reality, the Excelsior Scholarship disproportionately benefits SUNY students from middle-income households, with barely 4,000 of the 242,000 students at New York City public colleges and community colleges benefiting from the program, according to an August 2018 report from the Center for an Urban Future; and Whereas, Of all statewide Excelsior Scholarship recipients in 2018, only 20.7 percent attended CUNY institutions, even though CUNY students make up 38 percent of all undergraduate enrollment in the state; and Whereas, An uneven share of the state's low-income college students attend school in New York City, with 60 percent of CUNY students reporting household income below $30,000, including 71 percent of community college students; and Whereas, The Excelsior Scholarship only covers tuition fees, and fails to consider non-tuition expenses that can pose significant financial barriers to low-income students' academic success, such as the cost of transportation, food, and childcare; and Whereas, Underwriting a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Fund with $50 million annually in Excelsior Scholarship funds targeted to low-income CUNY and SUNY students would greatly alleviate the burden of non-tuition attendance expenses; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls on the New York State Legislature to pass and the Governor to sign legislation underwriting a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Fund with $50 million annually in Excelsior Scholarship funds, targeted at low-income CUNY and SUNY students. LS #7696 7/9/2019 5:08 PM M.T.