After New York officials announced a plan to pay college tuition for middle-class students last year, Domonique Baker was pretty sure she would qualify for the money.

“When I first heard about the scholarship, I read everything,” the now 27-year-old hospital registration representative said. Through her research, Baker learned that she met what she thought were the major requirements: Her annual income was below the $110,000 maximum and she was pursuing a bachelor’s degree at one of New York’s public universities, SUNY-New Paltz. Baker filled out the application and waited to hear back, calling multiple times to check up on her status.

“ ‘There are too many barriers, misunderstandings, lack of trust and too many catches.’ ” — Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University

Shortly before she was set to start her last year of classes, Baker said learned she didn’t qualify for the Excelsior Scholarship, as it’s known, because she was attending school part-time, balancing her schedule with a full-time job working overnights at a hospital. “It was marketed to middle-class families and working families and, unfortunately, everybody’s reality is different,” Baker said, adding that hers includes a full-time job.

Just over 20,000 students received the Excelsior Scholarship last year or about 3.2% of the state’s 633,543 undergraduates during the 2017-2018 academic year, according to an analysis of New York State higher education data released last week by the Center for an Urban Future, a New York City-based think tank focused on economic equity.

“That’s pretty modest for a college promise program that basically says every student can attend a public college or university for free,” said Tom Hilliard, senior fellow for economic opportunity at Center for an Urban Future and the author of the report.

Struggling to pay student debt? Here's what you need to know.

The governor’s office pushed back on the findings, noting that New York public college population used in the report takes into account students who wouldn’t have qualified for the scholarship, such as students only taking one credit and non-New York residents. That made the share of New York public college students served by the scholarship look smaller, the office said.

Perhaps more telling of Excelsior’s challenges than the relatively low number of students receiving the scholarship is the number of students who were rejected. Of the 63,599 students who applied, 43,513 were denied or about 68%, Hilliard’s report found.

“ When Governor Cuomo announced the Excelsior Scholarship 2017, he framed the offer of tuition-free, four-year college for middle-class students. ”

Those findings don’t jibe with numbers from the governor’s office, which found that roughly 95,000 students applied for the scholarship and between 22,000 and 23,000 ended receiving it.

When Governor Andrew Cuomo first announced the Excelsior Scholarship in January 2017, he framed the offer of tuition-free, four-year college for middle-class students as the latest in a long line of progressive policies on which New York state has taken the lead. Flanked by Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont, who made free college a signature element of his campaign, Cuomo told the crowd gathered at LaGuardia Community College, “It should be a wake-up call to this nation.”

But Baker’s story and others illustrate the challenges localities face in implementing college affordability programs that are truly transformational both for individual students and families, and for the states and cities themselves who are hoping the initiatives will boost their college-educated workforce.

More states are offering ‘free college’ programs

Over the past several years, states and localities have been launching free college or promise programs, which aim to cover college costs in some form (sometimes only tuition, sometimes more) for students living in a certain place.

One of the main benefits of free college or promise programs, according to their supporters, is that they signal to students who might otherwise think they can’t afford college that there’s a financially viable path available to them. They also serve as an antidote to the opaque financial-aid system, which asks students to jump through hoops to prove their level of need before they receive any help.

But the large share of applicants rejected from Excelsior indicates that officials did not communicate the requirements properly said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University and one of the architects behind the free college movement.

“ 53% of New York state public college students are attending school tuition free thanks to the state’s financial aid programs. ” — Don Kaplan, a spokesman for the Governor Andrew Cuomo

The fact that a small share of the state’s students are served by the program isn’t a problem in and of itself, according to Goldrick-Rab. What’s troubling is that the high level of rejected applicants indicates that officials “grossly overstated it.” “The main problems with financial aid were repeated here,” Goldrick-Rab said. “There are too many barriers, misunderstandings, lack of trust and too many catches.”

Don Kaplan, a spokesman for the governor, noted in a statement that 53% of New York state public college students are attending school tuition free thanks to the state’s financial aid programs. And indeed, part of the reason the share of New York college students served specifically by Excelsior is relatively modest is because the state already has a generous financial aid program, known as the Tuition Assistance Program or TAP, that covers many students’ tuition needs in combination with federal grants. Excelsior fills any tuition gaps after those grants are taken into account.

“We are proud that with Excelsior, thousands more are attending college for free this year,” the statement reads, later adding. “New York is expanding college access and making it affordable and the Center for an Urban Future shouldn’t stand in the way of that progress.”

What’s more it’s possible that the existence and publicity surrounding Excelsior may have also encouraged more students to apply to college and engage with the financial aid system for the first time. That gave them access to these resources — even if they didn’t actually qualify for Excelsior because their tuition is covered by the other scholarships. Applicants to CUNY and SUNY increased by 11% and 9% this year, according to the governor’s office.

The search for a truly transformational college affordability program

Hilliard said he agrees with the governor’s office that Excelsior shouldn’t necessarily be blamed for not covering the tuition of students who already have their tuition bills paid by other programs. But he said the relatively small share of students served by the initiative raises questions as to whether it’s a truly transformational college affordability program.

From the outset, the New York program has been plagued by criticism that it imposed too many requirements and that it failed to serve the state’s neediest students. To qualify, students need to be from families that earn $110,000 a year or less (ultimately that cap will rise to $125,000 by 2019). Many of New York’s poorest college students have their tuition covered by a combination of Pell grants — the money the federal government provides to low-income students to pay for college — and TAP.

“ From the outset, the New York program has been plagued by criticism that it imposed too many requirements and that it failed to serve the state’s neediest students. ”

Excelsior funding is only for tuition, so students with other sources of financial aid can’t use the scholarship for living expenses, books or other costs of college.

“I think you can ask how the state is going to achieve its larger goal of making college affordable,” Hilliard said. “It’s pretty clear that affordability continues to be a problem for students even when they receive need-based financial aid that covers their tuition.”

In addition to these provisions, graduates are required to live and work in New York for the number of years they used the scholarship after they leave school.

But perhaps the most controversial requirement: Students need to take 30 credits per year to qualify for the scholarship. That’s beyond even what the federal government considers full-time at 12 credits per semester. “That requirement is unrealistic for community-college students,” many of whom need to work to afford basic needs and to attend college, Hilliard said.

And indeed, about 83% of the students rejected from Excelsior were denied because they had insufficient credits, according to his analysis. Put another way: Almost twice as many students were denied for a lack of credits as actually received the scholarship. Implementing incremental fixes like allowing community college students to attend part-time and still qualify for the scholarship could help mitigate the problem, Hilliard said.

“By incentivizing on-time graduation, the Excelsior program aims to lower overall loan debt,” Kaplan said in the statement. Other New York financial aid programs offer funding to part-time students as well.

Baker, however, said the full-time requirement seems to be penalizing her for a situation in which she has little choice. When she was in school, Baker said she’d work at a hospital from 9 p.m. until 9:30 a.m. Then head to class, often not leaving until 5 p.m., delirious from lack of sleep. “I would love to not go to work full-time, but unfortunately I’m not in that category,” she said. “It seems like people who already have the upper hand had a better chance.”