Critics of this kind of last-dollar plan, as it’s known, point out that it only fills the gap left in funding; it doesn’t free up that funding for additional expenses, as first-dollar plans like those proposed by Sanders and Clinton during the presidential campaign would do. As Robert Kelchen, an assistant professor of higher education at Seton Hall University pointed out in a response to Cuomo’s announcement, students face many expenses in addition to tuition. A State University of New York website reveals that the in-state costs to attend the college beyond tuition and fees are $16,570 for on-campus students and $8,680 for commuters.

Free tuition, this table makes clear, does not make college free. And that is where Chingos and other critics take issue with Cuomo’s plan. Why not use the $163 million the state expects to spend on the Excelsior scholarships to help defray these additional expenses? Otherwise, the poorest students will likely still need to take on debt—if, that is, they are not dissuaded entirely from applying by the real cost of attendance, particularly after they have been told college will be free. The direct benefit of the Excelsior Scholarships will go to families making between $50,000 and $125,000, which is likely why Secretary King described the plan as “a bold step to eliminate financial hurdles” for middle-class families.

In an interview, Chingos explained that he was not making this point about low-income students as a judgment on whether this was the right policy to pursue. “I view my job as helping people understand the tradeoffs between free college and other things [the state] might do,” he said, adding that “what’s nice about free college is the simplicity and transparency. The downside is that it’s poorly targeted.”

In a conversation, Kelchen largely agreed with Chingos, that the plan “does nothing for low-income students who would already attend” a state college, but he did see some possible benefit for “those who might end up attending because of the message of free college, which is probably a few percent of students.” The example of Tennessee, which saw enrollment rise more than 20 percent at community colleges after the state made them free to attend, suggests that simplicity and transparency can indeed encourage students who have not traditionally applied to college to do so, although the benefits in New York are not expected to be as large.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher-education policy and sociology at Temple University in Philadelphia, is more optimistic about Cuomo’s plan. In an email, she described it as “terrific.” She is confident that it will benefit low-income students because it will impel new students, who otherwise wouldn’t, to apply to college.

One of the barriers to low-income students applying to college is that the U.S.’s financial-aid system (FAFSA) makes it so that they do not know how much college is going to cost them until they apply. It is no surprise that some students assume they cannot afford college, even though they will in fact not have to pay tuition. “FAFSA simplification only helps those people who got college-ready earlier in high school,” Goldrick-Rab told me. Making it much easier to apply to college and letting students know early on what they can afford to do may have additional benefits. Recent research, she suggests, demonstrates that “if you view the future opportunity for college as open and affordable you exhibit more effort in high school.”