On Tuesday, New York Gov.Andrew Cuomo revived one of the signature policy proposals of the 2016 presidential campaign, announcing a plan to provide tuition-free college to students entering the state's two- and four-year state colleges and universities, through a new program called the Excelsior Scholarship. Should the plan be passed by the state legislature, New York would join the ranks of states likes of Tennessee and Oregon (in addition to dozens of cities) that have enacted some version of tuition-free public college.

It goes without saying that the election of Donald Trump and the failure of Democrats to gain a majority in the U.S. Senate have temporarily sidelined, at the national level at least, many of the forward-thinking policies outlined by the likes of Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders over the past year. But Cuomo's announcement, in the fourth-largest state in the union no less, shows that the appetite for addressing the college affordability crisis hasn’t yet diminished, and may just be gaining new momentum.

This should be a hopeful sign for anyone concerned about equity and rising prices in our higher education system. The next few years will provide an opportunity to push for bold reforms at the state level that guarantee students a pathway through college free of financial burden. Cuomo’s announcement is a good start, but the key will be expanding this policy in ways that would be most beneficial to working class students and students of color.

First, though, it’s important to note that "free college," regardless of policy design, seems to have an impact on student aspirations. That’s no small feat. Since the rollout of the Tennessee Promise, the state’s free community college program, both enrollment and retention rates have increased at the state’s community and technical colleges. In Kalamazoo, an early adopter of a free college guarantee, researchers found benefits on high school student behavior and academic performance among African-American students. In Pittsburgh, researchers found positive impacts on college enrollment and student persistence into their sophomore year. One would expect a tuition-free college program in New York to gin up similar enthusiasm.

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To fully realize the promise of free college, though, New York would be wise to make a few tweaks and expansions of the Excelsior Scholarship. The program is designed to fill in any leftover tuition for students after they receive other grant aid (like the Pell Grant or New York’s Tuition Assistance Program) – otherwise known as a "last dollar scholarship." But since New York is already generous relative to other states in terms of providing financial aid to low-income students, many working class students will see little additional benefit to this program.

This may make it seem like low-income students in New York already have a sweet deal on their hands. But tuition makes up less than half of what students ultimately have to pay for college, as more debt is taken on for living expenses, books, transportation, child care and other costs associated with higher education. Even with tuition covered by Pell Grants and other aid, low-income students in New York (those from families making under $30,000) still pay just under $7,900 a year for college. Over four years, that’s more than $30,000 in additional expenses, much of which will be covered by students and families taking on debt. Worse, students overwhelmingly cite financial reasons when dropping out, and it’s important to remember that financial pressures will include both tuition and non-tuition costs, particularly for the working class.

By re-orienting the program to be more like those proposed by Clinton, Sanders and Barack Obama, Cuomo could promise to cover tuition for all students and then allow them to use other grants and supplementary income from a part-time job in order to pay for college. It would provide a guarantee of not just tuition-free college, but debt-free college as well.

The governor need not look any further than the City University of New York for inspiration on this front. CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs initiative, which covers tuition as well as transportation costs and textbooks (in addition to academic and social supports), has increased college enrollment, transfer and graduation for the students most in need of support, and done it at a lower cost-per-degree than other programs.

Supporting tuition and non-tuition costs is all the more important for adult learners, who must often work and raise dependents while attending college, and who also have a far smaller timeline on which they can repay any student loans. They also happen to be about half of all college students. While details on Cuomo’s proposal are somewhat scant, it seems that adult learners may also be eligible for any free tuition benefit. That’s good, and it would behoove other states to provide the same benefit to working-class adults as they do for 18-year-olds out of high school.

Opening up and expanding free college programs for low-income students and adult workers would require more initial investment, but it’s clear that public investment in education can more than pay for itself over time. Almost no one thinks of the initial expenditures on the GI Bill in the mid-20th century as a waste of public money.

Overall, it’s clear that the idea to provide a guarantee of affordable college is not going away. That it animated much of the 2016 campaign is no accident. Virtually all families dream of sending their kids to college, virtually all workers and employers see value in postsecondary training, and virtually all politicians regardless of party claim that increasing educational attainment is a national imperative.