Kerby Anderson

New York has decided to embark on an economic experiment. It has become the first state to offer free college tuition for its residents. Not everyone is excited about this idea. Brandon Muir, executive director of Reclaim New York, said, “Governor Cuomo’s taxpayer-backed college tuition plan is so reckless, no other state has been dumb enough to try it.” San Francisco has offered free community college tuition to its residents. Rhode Island is considering a similar measure, and a few other states are experimenting with some sort of tuition subsidy.

Offering free college tuition doesn’t mean that professors have now decided to teach for free. It doesn’t mean that academic buildings no longer cost the university. What it does mean is that New York taxpayers get to pick up the tab. Republicans in the New York state senate were able to add one requirement to the bill. They lobbied to force students to live and work in the state of New York for as many years as they received aid.

The proposal is only available to families that make less than $100,000 per year. Nevertheless, the New York plan strikes many people as unfair. New York taxpayers who never went to college or did not achieve a bachelor’s degree must foot the bill for students in a four-year college in New York. And those who did receive a college degree worked jobs and took out loans in order to graduate, now have to pay for students who get their tuition for free. All of these taxpayers face the prospect of earning less in the future than these students now enrolled in college.

Another concern is how free college tuition will affect future tuition increases. If a university is no longer accountable to parents and students who used to pay for tuition, tuition will likely increase even faster than it has in the past.

A number of political candidates have talked about providing free college tuition. Now we will see how it works. I’m skeptical.