HOW DOES FREE TUITION SOUND?

Any successful graduate of the Syracuse City School District could attend any state college or university for free, under a pilot program included in Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposed budget package.

The state would pay all tuition and fees for city graduates who met middle school Regents standards to attend any State University of New York school or the City University of New York, according to a bill memo that ties proposed increases in school funding to improving student performance.

The plan is part of an even broader partnership that would offer city students a similar tuition-free deal at Syracuse University and two dozen other private universities, Syracuse School Superintendent Dan Lowengard said.

"This is huge," Lowengard said. "It's going to help economic development because people are going to want to stay here and come back here. And it's educational opportunity, because your finances aren't going to stop you from getting an education."

The bill, which outlines conditions for the "contracts for excellence" Spitzer is requiring districts to enter in exchange for new permanent aid increases, is not yet drafted, but Lowengard Tuesday shared a copy of the memo.

If approved by the Legislature, the deal would begin with this year's Syracuse high school graduates. All students who met Regents English and math standards in both seventh- and eighth-grades would be eligible, according to the memo.

Income would not be a consideration, Lowengard said. Low-income students, however, would also be eligible for free room and board at state schools, he said.

"The idea here is to offer free college tuition as an incentive," said Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor. "It's a way to start early and aim students toward college."

Syracuse University has been working with other private universities and the "Say Yes to Education Foundation," a group that has used private donations to offer free college to individual classes of youngsters in a handful of inner city areas.

Say Yes has also been talking with university and city school officials about making sure all city students have the kind of support system they need - from kindergarten to their senior year - to be ready for college when they graduate, Cantor said.

"The hope of graduating and going to college simply doesn't exist in many inner city households," said Mary Ann Schmitt-Carey, president of the non-profit foundation. "This is an effort to instill that hope at an early age."

The private schools are still working out a program, and plan an announcement in the near future, Schmitt-Carey said.

Although overall state aid to the city district increased by nearly 10 percent in Spitzer's proposal, foundation aid - the permanent, unrestricted funding districts use to pay for their day-to-day operations - increased by only two-thirds of what the district had been told to expect last year.

Foundation aid increased by $12.4 million, leaving Lowengard with roughly $7 million less than he'd planned to include in his proposed 2008-09 school budget, which will be released Feb. 13.

The governor's $124.3B budget proposal

How CNY fares: Aid for schools, municipalities, business programs.

Spitzer's wish list for CNY

Empire Zone programs crackdown: Companies that missed job creation and investment targets could lose their tax breaks

STORIES, PAGE A-6