As New York lawmakers begin to gear up for the 2024 legislative session, one of the budget and policy issues that will be addressed is the state’s preeminent college financial aid program — the Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP, which will see its 50th anniversary next year. Earlier this month, the New York State Assembly Higher Education Committee held a hearing to examine how to best strengthen TAP.

New Yorkers should hope that that was the first step toward modernizing that five-decades-old program.

An indisputable fact: The cost of college has steadily increased at a pace that exceeds the nation’s inflation rate. Nationally, over the past 20 years the average cost of college tuition and fees at public four-year institutions has risen 9% annually on average. The rise in tuition between public institutions and independent, private ones is different, but the upshot is the same — the costs of attending college have been rising for decades and are increasing at a rate faster than overall inflation.

With college costs rising at a rate faster than the incomes of most Americans, college students and their families took out loans to make up the difference. As costs rose, so did the amount borrowed. The impact has been well documented — U.S. student........

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