Hildreth Institute in The Boston Globe

‘It feels so relieving.’ Students celebrate free community college program

This article originally appeared in The Boston Globe.

Jhollyeric De Freitas, 21, decided to pursue a college degree in computer networking and cyber security after the birth of his son earlier this summer.

Money is tight for De Freitas, who lives in an apartment with his mom, a Brazilian immigrant, and works full-time at his father’s restaurant in Gloucester as a cook. So it was an enormous relief when he learned last week that his tuition would be free, and he could save more money for his family while pursuing financial independence.

His son “deserves to grow up in a house one day, and it’s hard to do that without a diploma and a good job,” De Freitas said.

News last week that the new $58 billion state budget signed into law by Governor Maura Healey included free community college for students of all ages seemed almost too good to be true for De Freitas and many other current and prospective community college students.

The program, MassEducate, expands an initiative launched last year to make community college free for students 25 and older, which drove enrollment growth at the public, two-year schools for the first time in several years. Massachusetts’ 15 community colleges serve about 90,000 students, the majority of whom work while pursuing their degrees.

MassEducate covers tuition and fees, which cost an average of about $7,000; as well as books for students under a certain income threshold. Anyone without a bachelor’s degree and who has lived in Massachusetts for at least a year is eligible. The program is funded with revenue from the state’s millionaires tax, which charges a surtax of 4 percent on income over $1 million.

Community colleges across the Commonwealth are preparing for double-digit enrollment growth this year, said Nate Mackinnon, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges.

“It’s a momentous occasion for the community colleges, and for the state as a whole,” Mackinnon said. “We’ve moved the top of the ceiling up on free education from stopping at 12th grade.”

State leaders said free community college will be a boon to employers, especially in industries facing workforce shortages, such as healthcare. College presidents and advocates, meanwhile, hope the program will prompt much-needed improvements to campus infrastructure and boost the number of students transferring to four-year schools.

“I have been here in the community college system for 27 or 28 years now [and] I would not have imagined it happening,” said William Heineman, president of North Shore Community College in Danvers?. “It’s a dream come true.”

Cape Cod Community College had already seen enrollment jump more than 30 percent over the last year, largely due to the free college program for those over 25 the state established last summer. On July 29, the day the state allocated $93.5 million to create MassEducate, the West Barnstable college received more than 200 applications, said spokesperson Patrick Stone. The college is now adding core classes and evaluating whether it needs to hire faculty and staff to support the new students starting this fall.

“There are so, so many members of our community that have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time,” Stone said. “With the barrier of cost taken down, more people than ever can change their lives through higher education.”

For some students, free tuition means they can work less and study more.

Tribekah Jordan, a student at Cape Cod Community College, worked full-time last year as a preschool teacher while she pursued her associate’s degree in liberal arts, with a focus on journalism.

“This will mean decreasing that workload and being able to focus on my academic career, and assisting my professor with being editor-in-chief in my journalism class,” Jordan, 23, said. “This will mean focusing on myself.”

For others, free tuition means they will have more resources for other needs. Marina Schiering, 20, has had to make difficult budgeting decisions in recent years while paying tuition at Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley to pursue a career in special education. The Stow resident, who works in a retail job at REI, has forgone dentist visits in recent years to cover living expenses while going to school.

“I really love learning,” Schiering said. “It’s just the money that gets in my way.”

More than 30 other states, including Tennessee, New York, and Connecticut, offer free community college. MassEducate is designed as a “last dollar” program, which means the state will cover the remaining cost of tuition and fees after federal financial aid, such as Pell Grants, are applied.

Free community college programs structured this way are relatively inexpensive for the state, said David Deming, a Harvard University economist. He said the simple messaging of free community college tends to attract students who did not know federal financial aid would cover most or all of their costs.

Some worry making community college free could push some students who might otherwise attend a four-year institution to a two-year school, limiting their earnings potential. Bahar Akman Imboden, researcher with the Hildreth Institute, an educational nonprofit, said improving the promotion of recent state investments in financial aid for low and middle-income students working toward bachelor degrees would help. Healey’s 2025 budget, for example, includes $80 million for MassGrant Plus scholarships, which cover tuition, fees, and books for students eligible for federal Pell Grants at public universities, and reduce the cost for middle-income families.

“This lack of awareness of these other programs is concerning, and we need to create simple, universal messaging to ensure we don’t have a problem,” Imboden said.

Deming said research on free community college programs in other states found while “you do get some diversion away from four-year colleges,” the “net impact on college going is positive.”

Higher education watchers said support services, such as tutoring, emergency funds, and food pantries, will be critical for the success of MassEducate.

“We need to expand funding to make sure that neither the support system nor the educational quality is compromised as more students hopefully come to our community colleges,” Imboden said.

David Podell, president of MassBay Community College, said the college reported double-digit enrollment growth since the state made college free for adults over 25, and he expects to see similar increases this year. The “revolutionary” new program, he said, will inspire scores of students to come back to school who never could before, either because they had to work full-time, or they didn’t do well in high school.

“To make it free removes one enormous obstacle for individuals considering higher education,” Podell said. “It’s a complete makeover of higher education in Massachusetts, because so many individuals will have the opportunity now for the first time to pursue higher education and get into career of their choice. And that means steady income and meeting workforce needs.”

Yelena Valencia, 18, lives with her mother, an immigrant from Guatemala, in Framingham and has worked full-time for several years to help cover their rent and living expenses. Valencia, who graduated from Framingham High School in the spring, was stressed about paying her tuition bills at MassBay this fall with earnings from her job working with children in an after-school program. Her mother works at Market Basket.

“It feels so relieving,” Valencia said, speaking about MassEducate. “This program will help me so much, and my family, too.”