MIDDLETOWN – Area state lawmakers, Friday, announced the introduction of bill that will expand the Excelsior Program to include part-time university (minimum six credits, or two classes), BOCES and vocational students. Currently, the Excelsior Program is available only to full-time students, 15 credits minimum and can only be used at SUNY institutions.
According to Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson (D-Newburgh), there are also significant impediments to acceptance as Excelsior exists now, with 43,591 applicants denied, making the acceptance rate only 32 percent. These are typically people with families, or other adults that want to finish higher education they had already begun, or need to broaden their skills by learning new trades in this climate of constant change in technology and workforce needs.
At the SUNY Orange Middletown campus on Friday, Jacobson said these are the people for whom this expansion bill is aiming.
“Education is the great equalizer,” said Jacobson. “It is the great equalizer to get things better to get things better, but these years you to have some kind of training beyond high school and I believe this will do it, and this will also, because most people want to improve themselves, do better while they’re working. That’s how this was really thought about,” he said.
Senator Jen Metzger (D-Rosendale) said they are finding that higher education and continuing vocational training enrollment is decreasing and making an investment, as is outlined in the proposed bill, is fundamental to supplying the need for a skilled workforce.
“Education is opportunity. Education is the driver in our economy and we have to be willing to make the investment necessary to build that skilled labor force and grow. It is a fundamental investment. There is no better more productive investment than investment in education,” she said.
The bill has just been introduced. Jacobson and Metzger are still looking for co-sponsor support and are hoping to get it passed in time for it to become an item for the 2021 budget in April.
