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City Studies

Free For All?

On April 12, 2017, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a free college tuition bill into law. The Excelsior Scholarship makes the City and State Universities of New York tuition-free, but only for qualifying students. Students that are part time, undocumented, or whose families make over $125,000 per year are not eligible. Should college be free for everyone?

In the winter of 2018, CUP collaborated with Teaching Artist Gabe Gordon and Yadira Echevarria’s internship class at the international Community High School (ICHS) in the Bronx to find out. To investigate, students got out of the classroom and into the realm of higher education to survey educators and school staff on the value of a degree and the possible hidden costs of education. What are the different types of academic degrees? How much does higher education actually cost? Who decides?

Students created the newspaper Free For All? to teach others what they learned and to help students navigate their higher education options.