Bill Text: NY S00721 | 2015-2016 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Requires the conducting of a study by the board of regents of feasible alternative methods of funding a college education at public four-year institutions of higher learning in New York state.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-01-13 - PRINT NUMBER 721A [S00721 Detail]
Download: New_York-2015-S00721-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 721--A 2015-2016 Regular Sessions IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 7, 2015 ___________ Introduced by Sens. RIVERA, PERKINS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education -- recommitted to the Committee on Education in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to require the conducting of a study by the board of regents of feasible alternative methods of funding a college education at public four-year institutions of higher learning in New York state The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The legislature recognizes that post-secondary education 2 has expanded opportunities for New Yorkers to qualify for high-quality 3 jobs and entry into the middle class, providing clear benefits to this 4 state's economy. 5 Regrettably, public investment in higher education in this state has 6 decreased over the past decade, resulting in substantial increases in 7 annual tuition, fees and room and board imposed by public four-year and 8 two-year institutions of higher education in the state. These increases 9 have out-paced increases in the average family income in the state, 10 forcing students to incur larger amounts of debt in order to afford to 11 attend college. The average student loan debt of students graduating 12 from public four-year institutions of higher education in New York now 13 exceeds $25,000. 14 Such high levels of student debt are damaging not only to the individ- 15 ual student's ability to succeed financially but also will have grave 16 consequences for the future economy of this state. 17 The legislature finds that it must halt the decrease in the state's 18 support for public education and, over time, must increase its contrib- 19 ution to the funding of higher education. It also finds that the state 20 must immediately seek another approach to financing the students' share EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD05853-02-6
