College tuition is free in New York State. With a catch or two.

The Governor, with the help of the Democratic Delegation, passed the Excelsior Scholarship Program. In a nut shell it makes tuition free college possible for middle class families.

This program dove tails with other programs that have available money to fill in where the Excelsior Scholarship comes up short and ends up paying for the students education.

I commend the Democratic Delegation for taking the time to come up with a possible solution to try and help the middle class students with the ever increasing cost of higher education. My fear, like anything else these days is how do we pay for the program without raising taxes.

A household that earns up to $100,000 in the Fall of 2017, $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019 is eligible.

Students attending either a 2 or 4 year college will be required to be enrolled full time and graduate on time. Two things that have been problematic in the past. They must also stay in the state for the same amount of time they received free tuition.

This plan is encouraging as it addresses helping middle class students be competitive and helping the state be competitive as well in the long run.

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