In an effort to increase the state’s competitiveness, New York Gov. David A. Paterson committed this week to create a low-cost student loan program that will provide hundreds of thousands of students with low-interest loans. Establishing a low-cost loan program is one of a set of recommendations issued by an education commission assembled by former governor Elliot Spitzer. The commission also proposed spending $3 billion to fund research, hiring 2,000 new teachers, allowing campuses to charge differential tuition and making it easier for colleges and universities to make incremental tuition increases. The compact would allow the schools to make “modest and predictable annual tuition increases” without the current legislative action required to raise tuition.

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