Helping Students During Budget Gap

ALBANY, NY (01/30/2008)(readMedia)-- Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s investment in higher education is unique among governors the last three decades, who all proposed slashing state financial aid to students when faced with looming budget deficits, the head of the New York State Higher Education Services Corp. (HESC) testified in Albany Wednesday.

HESC President James C. Ross told legislators Spitzer is the only governor since the state’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) was started in 1974 to preserve student scholarships in the face of tough economic times.

“The governor’s commitment to higher education is clear and hundreds of thousands of students across the state can be thankful for that,” Ross said after he spoke at a joint legislative hearing on Spitzer’s Executive Budget.

Ross, who has headed HESC the last three years, has worked in higher education in New York State for more than 35 years.

Eligible students may receive a maximum of $5,000 a year toward tuition costs as part of the TAP program. This academic year, more than 370,000 students will receive more than $800 million in TAP to attend college.

Ross also praised the governor’s proposed Veterans’ Tuition Coverage Program, which would earmark $2 million to provide all returning combat veterans who served in the Vietnam, Afghanistan or Persian Gulf conflicts with up to $4,350 to attend a public or private college in New York State.

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