Hildreth Institute Joins Collective Letter in Response to the Senate’s Free Community College Proposal
March 13, 2024
Dear Senate President Spilka,
We, the undersigned, education advocates, researchers, practitioners, and community leaders from across the Commonwealth, write to share our gratitude for your leadership in prioritizing higher education access and affordability in this session and your ongoing commitment to expanding higher education opportunities for all Massachusetts residents.
For decades, we have advocated for higher education equity, guided by the belief that a college degree is the ticket to achieving social and economic mobility for individuals and their families. However, the reality is that the cost of college has been rising, and as a result, more and more students are priced out of a college education. As a result, our state has seen enrollment declines, creating a skills gap that may seriously threaten our communities' economic and social health.
Indeed, thanks to your leadership, considerable progress has been made to lay the necessary groundwork for a truly debt-free public higher education system in Massachusetts — from the historic investments in MassGrant Plus expansion, MassReconnect, and the passage of tuition equity for undocumented students — these programs will unlock opportunities and help alleviate many financial burdens for students. However, we know you share in our belief that much work still needs to be done to address the significant barriers and unmet financial needs that make a higher education degree unattainable for far too many students.
As you look to the FY25 budget, we urge you to continue building on the progress that has been made to improve college affordability across the Commonwealth, and we hope you will continue to pursue a progressive, equity centered approach, one that is grounded in the following core principles:
Financial aid resources should be targeted to students and families who need them most. It is widely recognized that pursuing a college education can substantially increase the likelihood of obtaining a secure, high-paying job. Data shows that individuals with bachelor's degrees typically earn around $35,000 more per year compared to high school graduates or GED holders. However, significant disparities in degree attainment persist, particularly based on race and income. For example, students from low-income backgrounds and Black and Latino students, who generally have less wealth than their White peers, continue to face significant challenges in terms of access, affordability, and completion of postsecondary degrees. In a state where an increasing number of jobs require college degrees, these disparities have real-world implications for students, families, communities, as well as our Commonwealth's economy and democracy. We know you share our commitment to closing these persistent gaps, and we believe that targeting resources to more fully support students who face the most obstacles is the best way to close these gaps.
Investments should prioritize covering the total cost of attendance for low-income students, including both direct and indirect costs.
While financial aid often covers tuition and fees, indirect costs such as room and board, transportation, childcare, books, and course materials can make up over half of the total cost of college. Failing to cover these costs creates a significant barrier to access and completion for underserved students. Additionally, a 2021 study found that in Massachusetts, even for students with expected family contributions (EFC) of zero, most financial aid offers still left them with bills of more than $10,000 to cover direct costs for their first year, which forces students from low-income backgrounds to finance their education with debt. Specifically, for public schools, 53% of financial aid offers from four-year public institutions included an estimated bill of $10,000 or more after grants and before loans. It is essential to address this need to ensure a genuinely debt-free public higher education for all.
Financial aid should provide students with the opportunity to choose the public college that best meets their unique needs and interests.
There are numerous public colleges and universities that offer a wide variety of high-quality associate and bachelor's degree programs. A truly equitable public higher education system should aim to maximize, rather than restrict, student options. It should also guarantee that students with financial needs can enroll directly in the associate or bachelor's program that best aligns with their goals without any financial constraints.
Priority should be given to programs and strategies that help close the completion gap. The state must focus on programs and strategies that help narrow the completion gap. This means prioritizing funding for wraparound services and providing more robust institutional support for students, including better advising, scheduling, and counseling. Further investments in initiatives like the SUCCESS Fund and early college programs could also be beneficial. Early data show that participation in the programs funded by the SUCCESS Fund and early college increases college persistence by 16 percentage points — but the funding isn't reaching nearly enough students. Additionally, research indicates that access to a rigorous high school curriculum is the greatest predictor of college success. Therefore, we must do more to ensure that all students have equal access to rigorous high school curricula, such as MassCore and other advanced coursework like AP, to close the college completion gap. To protect the state's investments in public higher education, we urge you to provide students at two and four-year public colleges with the necessary support services to successfully complete their degrees.
The state should maximize the impact by increasing public awareness.
The state must raise awareness among students and families about the financial aid and college application processes to maximize the impact of existing and future investments. According to a recent poll, families often require more information and understanding about the financial aid process and frequently overestimate the cost of public colleges while underestimating the available financial aid. To address this, we recommend that state leaders initiate a comprehensive study aimed at evaluating and consolidating its financial aid programs to create a simplified and understandable financial aid system. This change would pave the way for a strategic statewide communication campaign designed to enhance awareness of these opportunities, ensuring that students and their families are well-informed and can easily access these vital resources.
We also urge prioritizing H4269, An Act to Facilitate Student Financial Assistance, to ensure equitable access to financial aid information for our most vulnerable student populations. Completing the FAFSA by the end of senior year increases the likelihood of enrolling in college by 84%, and eligible Massachusetts students who did not complete the FAFSA left over $53,000,000 of unused Pell funds on the table in 2023. With significant investments in higher education in the FY24 budget, it has become even more critical to ensure that students have access to information about their financial aid eligibility. Access to information about financial aid must not be left to chance.
We recognize you will face many tough choices in the coming months as you work towards creating an FY25 budget with limited revenue and competition for surtax dollars. We respectfully recommend that you consider matching Pell Grant awards at under-resourced institutions on a first-dollar basis and, ideally, doubling the Pell Grant over time in order to execute the targeted approach described above. This will ensure that limited resources are spent in the most judicious, progressive, and equitable manner possible.
Higher education is an investment with proven, long-term returns for both individual students and our state's economy. We remain inspired and grateful for your ongoing leadership on this issue. We look forward to working with you to ensure a more equitable, accessible, and truly transformative higher education system in the Commonwealth.
Gratefully,
