In January, Bernie Sanders praised New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed Excelsior Scholarship as a “revolutionary idea for higher education.” The plan — passed last week — offers free tuition to New York’s public colleges to students whose families earn less than $100,000 annually.

Cuomo has grabbed the national spotlight with this new program, which the governor estimates will benefit nearly a million families. Sanders predicted that “state after state will follow” this first-in-the-nation program.

The plan seems less revolutionary, however, when we remember that CUNY charged no tuition at all until 1976. And Cuomo’s progressive cred disappears when we remember that he has, until now, fought to raise tuition rather than cut it. Tuition is 30 percent higher today than it was when Cuomo took office, thanks to what he championed as “rational tuition.” In fact, only last year, he proposed slashing CUNY’s budget by $485 million, about one-third.