Earlier on Jan 29th, Governor Kathy Hochul discussed her plan to offer free community college tuition for adult learners ages 25 to 55 in New York State. The Governor highlighted her proposal at Onondaga Community College to showcase the region’s readiness for Micron to support New York State as a global hub for Semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. The plan, part of Governor Hochul’s 2025 State of the State, furthers her commitment to creating more workforce development opportunities to ensure every New Yorker has the opportunity to pursue a degree or credential for jobs in high-demand fields.

B-ROLL of the Governor touring the Micron Cleanroom Simulation Lab at Onondaga Community College is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor’s remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:

?It's great to be back here with so many friends. I've been on this campus countless times — mostly as Lieutenant Governor when people didn't know who the heck I was, so I used to slip in-and-out of here all the time. It's a great, great place of learning and truly dedicated leaders who care so deeply about all of you.

And I want to acknowledge our President, Warren Hilton, here — he just gave me a great tour; I saw the future unfold before my eyes. We toured the Micron Cleanroom Simulator Lab, and I was so proud to announce, back in October of 2023, the collective $15 million to make this become a reality. And support from Micron, the State and the County really decided to say, “Let's build something where we can train young people today, so when Micron does open, these jobs will be filled immediately with our graduates from this institution and others.” So, this is what we're doing.

I also want to acknowledge Chancellor John King, Chancellor of SUNY. I mean, that is a very big deal. He leads all of our college campuses, our four-year institutions, and our university centers and colleges, and leadership really does matter. And when he decided to accept an offer to come to this place after serving as President Obama's Secretary of Education and distinguished career, I knew how fortunate we were to have someone of his caliber. And again, what I'm looking for in a team and people in places like this are visionaries, and that's exactly what we found in Chancellor John King. Let's give him a round of applause as well.

A number of my colleagues from the State Assembly are here. We have Assemblymember Al Stirpe. Great to see you again, Al — always appreciate you attending these events, your advocacy for Syracuse. Assemblymember Pam Hunter. We've been in your district many times — support you. Mayor of the City of Syracuse, Ben Walsh. I want to thank him for just believing in this community so deeply, and I've seen it from the day he was sworn in — his inauguration — and his ideas and how he wanted to implement a plan to build more housing in places that have been long forgotten and just parts of our city that were so neglected, and he really came to it with a can-do attitude that we should see more of in our elected leaders, but he truly possesses that, and we've been so fortunate to have him as our leader. Let's give another round of applause to our mayor. And again, to our community college presidents who joined us, this is a big day for community colleges, a very big day. But also, as we think about what our community colleges are intended to do — educate and put people on a career path.

And there's someone else I want to acknowledge, Randy Wolken — he's the Head of the CNY REDC co-chair, but also the Head of MACNY, which represents the manufacturers. He has had the vision, as well, for a long time. This Micron simulation was something that Randy has spoken about. Getting the hands-on training with the real equipment, this is not pretend equipment. I saw the boxes being shipped over — 30 more boxes arriving on top of the 40 that are here filled with Micron equipment. So, this isn't fake. This is real, hands-on learning, and Randy knows the importance of that to make sure that we're building the workforce for the jobs of tomorrow, so let's give him a round of applause as well.

And you're going to be hearing from Josh Barr, who's a student who's going to tell you his story, but it is inspiring to know what he's already accomplished thus far and where he's going. So, as I mentioned, we've already talked about how important it is to have these State investments. I'm delighted to do this, because landing Micron has to be one of the crown jewels in any Governor's life; to say you're bringing the largest private sector investment in American history under your watch with the work that we did, working with Senator Schumer in Washington, D.C., President Biden, and so many people came together.

But I do believe it was the support of our Legislators. It was that extra Green CHIPS initiative where we said, “We will put State money there on the table. Federal money is important.” That means a facility like Micron would go somewhere in America. That's great. But how do we get them to New York?

We had to come up with the dollars and the plan and to help them implement their plan to have a fully sustainable — a place where they're learning or teaching people skills that they never would have dreamed of having. Recruiting people out of our most hard hit neighborhoods, letting those people see a future.

But also, it's near and dear to my heart, is their announcement they're already building a child care center on site. So thank you, Micron, for having the vision to say, “We want everybody to have a job, even young parents.”

This is a place, there's a lot of capacity here, 8,500 students. It is a large institution. And what's exciting, I know the President — who you'll be hearing from — President Hilton, who's, again, a great leader here, he told me it's up 4 percent. There are other places where it's going down 4 percent and even higher. So, that speaks to your leadership, but also people's desire to be part of something that is dynamic and not a place where people think of like old community colleges, but they see some new possibilities, and that is what you have brought to this as well, and I want to thank you for that. So, that is a great number.

Now, New York is CHIPS country, full stop. Anywhere else in the country, try to compete with that. And Syracuse is the capital of Micron and CHIPS country right now. But Syracuse, I want to put out something that's going to make your jaw drop. By the end of this decade, one out of the four America-made microchips will come from Upstate New York. In the whole country — one out of four will come out of this region. Tens of thousands of high paying jobs; I want to make sure our people have the skills to seize these opportunities.

I don't want people to have to come from out-of-state. You're welcome to come, we've got plenty of room, but what about our own students? What about the young people who grew up right here in this county, in this city? This is why they deserve this. This area has waited too long. Believe me, I know, I'm from Buffalo. Super Bowl next year. San Francisco, here we come. It's in San Francisco next year. Though I didn't mean that when I was talking about — we have waited a long time, but we are waiting a long time for that too.

But we've waited a long time for people to believe in themselves again and to have an outside validator like a Micron and GlobalFoundries is here in New York and the supply chain companies that are coming all the way over to Batavia and Buffalo. This whole region, this Erie Canal region, is now the innovation corridor and it was an innovation corridor back over 200 years ago. We're celebrating the anniversary of the Erie Canal at the same time we're talking about how human capital, the ingenuity that brought us Erie Canal, is very much in play right now 200 years later in the very same place. That is the electricity and the energy that I hope you feel that I know is out there and it's so palpable.

But people believe in themselves again. It's no longer looking at other cities with envy in other states. That has long been over now. We are the place you want to be. Our housing is in high demand. By the way, we need to build more housing, right everybody? Let's build more housing.

But, what can change your circumstances — no matter where you're born, what zip code you're born in — is an education. And why do I know this? Because my parents lived in a trailer park in Lackawanna, New York, near the steel plant where my dad worked, his father worked and his brothers worked. And they thought they were doing great, because my dad's father had been a migrant farm worker in the wheat fields of South Dakota where they wouldn't hire Irish anywhere when he came.

But to come to that good job at Bethlehem Steel meant everything to them. My father also had a vision. He wanted to lift his little family out of that trailer park and take them to a new place. And he worked hard. He got his college degree while he worked full time. And when he got that degree, it opened up more opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to him or his own children — and certainly not his daughter, who was able to be blessed with a great education right here in Syracuse. This is the trajectory I want everybody to be on, because I've seen what it does for families. If we get someone's skills in this simulation lab, and they work at Micron — maybe there's even two people working at Micron — you'll have enough money for Buffalo Bills season tickets and the ride to the Super Bowl. That's how we define success here in Upstate, right?

I can't tell you how excited I am about this, because I know what it does and I know what we're doing here right now, and I know why this is so worth it. And to also say that this educational opportunity that's right here in this community is going to teach people skills they never dreamed of having. Right now, over 4 million New Yorkers between the ages of 25 and 55 don't have a college degree or credential at all. And unfortunately, even just having that credential is the key to unlocking these better paying jobs.

There are jobs out there: I have 400,000 jobs available in the State of New York right now, but I can't say they're all high-paying. I'm talking about the keys to opening up the high-paying jobs. The ones where there's pride in making something. Manufacturing is what we've always done here. We make things with our hands and our minds. That's what this opportunity is all about.

But how do we get more people in the door to get that college degree? Because sometimes for people, that cost is a barrier. If you're working minimum wage and you're trying to pay for child care, and then maybe cover the cost of a community college to lift yourself up, it's not happening. It's not happening. It doesn't add up. Single parents want to lead by example for their kids. My mom went to college when we were all college age, because she wanted her kids to see that her parents thought education was important. My mom went back to college because she didn't have the money to go when she was younger. This is what it does for people.

So, we're focusing on an age group here. The 25-year-olds, maybe they're thinking about, “Maybe I want to get on a path.” Someone who wasn't going to go to college and now seeing that they're being left behind, they're never going to be able to get that apartment, much less a house. Someone who's 45 or 50, who's thinking, “These are not the skills I want to have. I want to change my career, or the job I had went away somewhere else.” So, I want to give those people — whether they're professionals looking for a second act, or someone just figuring it out for the first time, and our neighbors who've fallen on hard times — a community college experience if it's available to them, and they can afford to go. This is how you change people's lives one person at a time. And for many, the thought of shelling out $8,000 a year to cover your tuition and your books and all your expenses, and you have to do it for two years so it's $16,000 to elevate yourself. Who has that kind of money sitting in the bank? Very few people.

So that ability to change their trajectory is foreclosed. They can't open that door except here in New York. And I want to make sure that people know how significant this is. What we have talked about, and I've put it in my Budget just a couple weeks ago, is a plan to say we can reshape the future of thousands and thousands of New Yorkers and create a pipeline of skilled workers to go into our businesses. And how we do that? We'll pick up the cost of that tuition for community colleges right here in New York for ages 25 to 55 in those high demand careers. Let's get it done. Let's get it to the Legislature to make sure that it's successful for everyone.

Whether it's advanced manufacturing, healthcare, I have so many shortages in healthcare and engineering and education. For those fields, you want to get a degree in those? We will pick up the tab for you because that is an investment that will earn multiple times over. When you're lifted out of your circumstances, that means your family will do better, your community will do better, and all of a sudden our employers are in a better place because they'll have more skilled workers to choose from. So money back in the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers, we've talked about this non stop for weeks.

Money back in your pockets, whether it's from the inflation rebate, you know what that's all about? That says that you all paid 18 to 20 percent more for everything you bought over the last few years because of inflation, whether it's eggs or your kid's backpack or sneakers and the State of New York collected more money in sales tax because the cost of everything went up. I looked at that extra three billion dollars and said, “That doesn't belong to the state. This came out of the pockets of hard working New Yorkers and I want it back in their pockets.” So we are taking that money and putting it back in families pockets, $500 for a family, $300 for a single, to help people start feeling like they've got something in return.

As well as families. My God, who's got children out there? Anybody? Okay. Is this the cheapest thing you've ever done in life? No. No one told you there's a big price tag when that baby comes, right? It's a high price tag. They're worth it. They're totally worth it. Maybe it's because I'm a mom and I had to pay for the formula and the diapers and the clothes that they outgrew every three months.

But there's a reason they say three to six, six to nine, they outgrow them. And you're always buying more clothes, right? So we want to put money back in families' pockets in those early years.

When I first became Governor, children under the age of four, you know how much money they got from the state for the child tax credit? Zero. Because nobody was smart enough to realize that's the most expensive time. What are we doing? So we brought them into the fold and this year we're going to triple the amount of money and raise the money to $1,000 for children under the age of four. $500 for school age. If you have a young family and we're picking up the cost of the breakfast and lunch. There's no stigma on any child ever having to go to a different line because their parents couldn't afford breakfast or lunch for them. We start having this sense of possibility for every child. We pick up those costs, the inflation rebate, the middle class tax cut.

Now we're talking $5,000 back in families pockets? And then you want to go to community college? We just added another $16,000 back in your pockets? Now we're talking. Now we're talking. We're talking about making life in New York more affordable, and that's what we have to do. We'll focus on so many issues — mental health and health care, and public safety is so important to all of us — but just having money back again so you don't have that stress when the bills come every month.

My God, if government can do that for you, people start to believe again. Maybe they are listening to us. Maybe they understand what I've been through. Maybe my circumstances helped me relate because my family started off with so little.

But this is what I want to do. I want to open up these opportunities for you and we're going to be expanding our tuition assistance program, making it available to more people. We're launching the Office of Strategic Workforce Development, so there's a place where people can understand that this is where you go to find out what your career might be.

We're also investing over $200 million, we call on ramp centers. That's where we're also doing more training for advanced manufacturing jobs. And we have our on ramp center right here in Syracuse. We announced it here. We want to make sure it happens here. Syracuse is the epicenter of this movement.

My friends, I'm excited to be back. I know that education is everything. It is the great equalizer. It's the great mechanism to lift people out of their circumstances, often out of poverty. And there's few things more powerful in life than that. And that's what we're going to do here. And with the leadership we have here, with President Hilton and our community college leaders from all over. Mountains that once seemed insurmountable, now we can climb them, now we can scale them. And we can have a future for all young people that might have never been in their wildest dreams.

But this is the great State of New York. We always believe in better days ahead. And that's why we say, “Ever upward. We're continuing to move upward.”

And I want to thank everybody who's participating in this. Let's get it done. Let's make the community college free for these individuals. And let's open up these doors of opportunity. Are you with me to do that? Let's get it done.

Let me introduce someone who's well known to this community and outside the community as well. His reputation's exceptional. President of our Onondaga Community College, Warren Hilton. And I want to thank him for his enthusiasm for this Micron Simulation Lab. He knows what's in every single box.

He's so excited about it. But that's just one piece of what he does. But that shows he's on the cusp of great things happening right here at OCC, Mr. President.