Under a historic new budget written by governor Andrew Cuomo and approved by state lawmakers over the weekend, nearly one million families in the state of New York will now qualify for free tuition at the state’s public colleges, universities, and community colleges.

（纽约）州长安德鲁·库默提出一项新的预算法案，立法会议员周末同意将其列入国家预算，这意味着纽约有近100万家庭现在获得了免学费上纽约州的公办大学、综合类大学和其他社区大学的资格。

The program—the first of its kind in the US, phasing in over the next three years, and costing New York an estimated $163 million—will cover any student who:

这样的项目在美国史上实数首例，在未来三年开始逐步实行，大约花费纽约州达163万美金的预算。符合如下条件的学生将从中获益：

comes from a household making $100,000 or less

家庭年收入少于10万美金

meets certain class load and grade-point restrictions¹

符合特定课程和学分限制要求

agrees to stay in New York state after graduation for the same number of years that they receive the financial support.

愿意毕业后留在纽约，且愿意逗留与他们接受此援助的年数相同的年数。

A bachelor’s degree from CUNY and SUNY, respectively, currently costs around $6,500 a year; community college tuition runs about $4,500.

要在纽约市立大学或纽约州立大学获得学士学位，花费大约在每年6500美元，社区大学在4500美元。

New York’s plan revives the free college concept that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders earnestly pushed during his US presidential campaign, and that fellow candidate Hillary Clinton later adopted as well. Many assumed the idea died with the election of Donald Trump—but Cuomo, with help from Sanders, has fought vigorously for several months for the plan to be rolled out in New York.

重提纽约州大学免费的这一主张是由民主党候选人伯尼·桑德斯在参选总统时提出并大力主张的，其对手希拉里克林顿后来也表示赞同。但是所有的设想随着川普的上台都销声匿迹了。但是库默，有着桑德斯的支持，花了好几个月的时间为纽约州的这项预算能够通过而努力。

But with the amount of strain most American households are feeling from both soaring tuition and student loan debt these days, offering increased college affordability² to middle-class and low-income families is not inconsequential. After all, not going to college has its own cost: The mighty³ majority of new jobs in the country are going to people with degrees.

随着学费和学生贷款的疯涨，很多家庭都力不从心，对于中低收入家庭来说学费的可承受是合理诉求。毕竟，许多国家的大部份新工作都需要学历这个敲门砖，如果没有学历也是一种损失。