Over the past several years, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have put New York at the forefront of efforts to reduce income inequality, announcing initiatives such as universal prekindergarten, paid family leave and a $15 minimum wage for public-sector workers. These are all hugely important policy innovations. But I’m keeping my eye on another inequality initiative, one rolled out late last year to little fanfare but which could turn out to be one of the most effective efforts in New York, and the nation, to catapult people into the middle class.

I’m talking about CUNY’s plan to enroll virtually all full-time students at Bronx Community College in CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, an initiative that has proven to be amazingly effective in increasing community college graduation rates.

CUNY ASAP, which provides community college students with free tuition, textbooks, MetroCards and regular contact with an adviser, is one of the most widely acclaimed educational initiatives in recent memory. The respected research organization MDRC evaluated an ASAP pilot project and found that it nearly doubled participants’ three-year graduation rates. “ASAP’s effects after three years are the most positive MDRC has found in over a decade of research in higher education,” the authors said.

The program’s potential is clear. Community colleges have become key platforms for mobility at a time when a high school diploma is no longer enough to guarantee a decent-paying job. Yet these institutions are failing to fulfill their vast potential because so few of their students actually graduate with an associate degree or transfer to a four-year university. Just over one-third of first-time full-time community college freshmen statewide graduate within six years. In New York City, the six-year graduation rate at community colleges is 29 percent.....

.....Expanding the program will require Cuomo and the state Legislature to make long-overdue revisions to how the state finances its higher education system. Currently, the state’s college financing system rewards community colleges for enrolling students but not for graduating them. This needs to change.

Ever since New York state first chartered its community colleges, it has paid them on a per-enrolled-student basis, which effectively rewards colleges for enrolling more students and punishes them for spending more to help those students succeed. Yet ASAP is actually less expensive than the status quo when measured by cost per graduate. The fact is that there is nothing sacred about New York’s traditional funding mechanism. Other states are experimenting with creative financing approaches, and New York could too.....

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