Cantor: Increasing college tuition assistance and Long Island’s future workforce

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The New York State Legislature is seeking to help financially burdened New York residents attending both public and private colleges and universities by increasing the Tuition Assistance Program awards as well as increasing the household income eligibility criteria of TAP applicants. Allowing TAP to benefit more students is overdue, considering Long Island’s young people are leaving the area and taking with them the skills the region’s workforce needs to sustain the local economy.

Both the New York State Assembly and Senate would like to increase the minimum TAP award from the current $500 to $1,000, while also increasing the TAP income eligibility cutoff from the current $80,000 to $125,000. Consideration is also being given to increasing the maximum awards, extending TAP for five years for those unable to graduate in four years, and increasing the TAP income eligibility threshold for independent single and married students with no dependents.

Under the current eligibility criteria—which have remained unchanged for almost 25 years—during the 2021-2022 academic year, more than $718 million in TAP awards were received by more than 235,000 students. For Long Island students, the increased TAP award is welcome news especially since they are confronted with the region’s unrelenting high costs, ever-increasing college tuition and tight family budgets. The reality is that household income of students matters regarding post-high school education affordability.

Research I conducted involving Nassau Community College students illustrated that household income influenced academic success. The lower the household income, the greater chance of the student not completing school or graduating, or not transferring to a four-year college. Those who completed lived in communities with household incomes between $48,438 and $150,161 and a median household income of $96,563, as compared with those who did not complete, who resided in communities with lower household incomes between $35,748 and $139,565, and a lower median household income of $91,718. Higher TAP awards, and expanded TAP income eligibility criteria leading to greater student participation, should contribute to less household budget stress, thus resulting in greater student academic success.

With more and more young people expressing their unhappiness with the current state of the region, it is critical for those attending colleges and universities succeed in learning, graduating—or transferring to four-year colleges—to complete their higher education, and become part of the regional workforce.

Clearly, the prolonged inflationary economy has impacted learning, with students in lower income earning households having to obtain skills to facilitate keeping family budgets afloat, making time spent on academics more important. There is a need for this since so many young people relate they’re inability to find jobs aligned with their skill sets, or salary expectations at companies within the industries they’d like to work.

The reality is that Long Island’s only true asset is its people. Its human capital—and our educated young people—have shown their mobility through departure. This is demonstrative by them leaving the region by the thousands, taking their education that Long Islander taxpayers have paid for, benefiting other regions of the country.

The New York Assembly and Senate are right to ease the financial burden of education on students and their families.

Martin Cantor is director of the Long Island Center for Socio-Economic Policy and former Suffolk County economic development commissioner. He can be reached at [email protected].