MTA statement on state Senate plan to make community colleges free
MTA statement on state Senate plan to make community colleges free
MTA statement on state Senate’s plan to make community colleges tuition free.
The MTA applauds the next step in our union’s campaign to win true, debt-free public higher education with the Senate’s proposal to provide scholarship aid that will cover the full cost of tuition and mandatory fees for students attending community colleges, after accounting for Pell Grants and other existing aid.
For more than a decade, the MTA’s members and allies have led the fight for debt-free, high-quality, public higher education as a pillar of a more racially and economically just Commonwealth. We were a key organization in winning the Fair Share Amendment in 2022, providing the lion’s share of the funding for that campaign so that we all would have a significant source of revenue for public education, in prekindergarten through higher education. Fair Share Amendment revenue is a bright light in the revenue picture. Because of our members’ work, our state Constitution now includes a commitment to affordable public higher education.
We applaud the Senate’s leadership and the growing consensus on Beacon Hill that we must guarantee every student the opportunity to achieve their full potential, including by attending any public college or university and achieving a vocational certificate or degree, if they choose this pathway. That is currently not the case, as working-class students, including many students of color, no matter how high their grades or test scores, are often not able to afford to attend and graduate from one of our 29 public colleges and universities. This is a fundamental inequality that we should not allow to continue in a state that wants to be known for educational quality.
The commitment to universal access to community colleges is an important step toward the MTA’s ultimate goal of a high-quality, debt-free, public higher education system that is available to all.
The commitment to universal access to community colleges is an important step toward the MTA’s ultimate goal of a high-quality, debt-free, public higher education system that is available to all. We remain concerned that the current proposal does not address the full cost of attendance, including room and board, which represents a significant cost of college attendance, is a huge driver of debt, and an imposing obstacle for many working-class students. We remain concerned that the bulk of the limited funds will not go to those who need it the most. We also remain concerned that young people will not be able to afford programs they are qualified to attend, but that only exist at four-year state universities or the UMass campuses.
Other parts of the Senate proposal begin to address these long-term goals: The $25 million dollar increase in MassGrant Plus and the new $10 million fund to help low-income students meet emergency needs are steps toward crafting a system in which we give students the opportunity to succeed by helping to meet their basic needs so they are not required to work 30 or 40 hours a week while attending college. Given the strong growth in Fair Share revenues, we hope that the Legislature will allot significant funds to ease the campus capital debt burden, and with a commission, lay the groundwork for the next phase of the work in building a public higher education system we all deserve.
If the Senate’s proposed program brings more students to our 15 community colleges, that is a very good development. If the program leads the Commonwealth toward a first-in-the-nation guarantee of a debt-free, two- and four-year public higher education system that is fully staffed with educators whose working conditions allow them to meet the needs of all students, and that has healthy and green buildings of the highest quality for our most important resource – our young people – then this will be a day of great historical importance.
“The Senate budget makes significant progress toward improving access to higher education in Massachusetts. It is crucial that community college be accessible to all students, no matter their age, race or economic status. And we must fix the salary equity and workload issues at community colleges to ensure that we can recruit and retain high quality staff and faculty to serve these students and help them to reach graduation,” said Claudine Barnes, president of the Massachusetts Community College Council and a faculty member at Cape Cod Community College.