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SAGE Scholars, a Philadelphia-based private college funding organization, has awarded $40,000 in scholarships to select private colleges and universities in New York State to buffer the effects on independent higher education of the State’s “free public college” initiative. The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) distributed the $2,500 scholarships to those institutions that belong to both SAGE and CIC. The emergency grants will assist incoming students who plan to start at these institutions this fall.
“We at CIC are troubled by the new ‘free public college’ initiative in New York,” said Richard Ekman, president of CIC. “It is clear that state governments have available other approaches to increase college degree completion by low-income students that do not undercut private colleges and universities and are more cost-effective than New York’s ‘free college’ approach.”
A recent report by William Zumeta of the University of Washington and Nick Huntington-Klein of California State University, Fullerton shows that in most states—including New York—a $1,000 increase in portable tuition grants could greatly increase statewide college degree attainment and save millions of tax dollars, simply by encouraging students to shift their enrollment choice from a public institution to a similar private college or university. Students, including those with lower incomes, complete their college degrees faster and graduate at higher rates at private colleges, on average, than students at comparable public universities.
Dr. James Johnston, president of SAGE Scholars, said, “We are hopeful that our SAGE scholarship donation will encourage other organizations to join us in supporting New York’s excellent private colleges.”