2020’s Free College Promises May Be Deadly to Private Schools
- NY’s $0 tuition program strained Clarkson University, others
- Warren, Sanders proposals may threaten 1,700 private colleges
Source: Clarkson University
This article is for subscribers only.
New York touted its free college tuition program as a first-of-its-kind plan that would eliminate the burden of student loans. But the zero-dollar price tag came at a cost: It tore a hole in the finances of Clarkson University, an upstate private college of more than 4,300 students.
In 2017, right as high-school seniors were preparing to declare where they’d enroll in the fall, New York officials said they would eliminate tuition for thousands of students at the state’s public universities. More than 100 prospective students changed their minds to instead enroll in public schools, according to Clarkson estimates.