How are you paying for college?
Will you graduate with loan debt?
Do you have to work while in school just to get by?
Do you have friends who can’t access college in the first place?
Over the past ten years, college costs have gone up 73% in the University of Massachusetts system, 58% in the state college system, and 37% at community colleges.1

What’s the problem?
Massachusetts is known for its colleges and universities, yet in 2007 our state ranked 46th in the nation in per capita funding for public higher education.2

From 2001 to 2004, Massachusetts cut its funding for public higher education more than any other state, a 32.6% reduction.3

As the state has cut funds for public education, our colleges have pushed costs onto us. There are only 4 states with higher average tuition and fees at 2-year public colleges than Massachusetts, and only 9 have higher tuition and fees at 4-year public colleges.4

Yet at the time that we need it most, Massachusetts has gutted funding for MASSGrant, the state’s primary financial aid program.5
:

• Percent of recipients’ student charges covered by in 1988 MASSGrant: 80%

• Percent of recipients’ student charges covered by MASSGrant in 2005: 15%

 

            Today, many of our family and friends are being priced out of college while others are graduating with excessive loan debt and working too many hours while in school. Soon, our state’s “knowledge-based” economy will suffer as fewer college graduates will be able to afford to take public service jobs, and as Massachusetts’ population of working and middle-class students, immigrant students, and students of color will be less and less able to access a college degree.

Together, we deserve better for our future—and today, our state can do better to support college access and affordability for all.

Sources:

1. Massachusetts Board of Higher Education Task Force on Student Financial Aid, “Final Report,” October 2006 (these percentages represent increases before calculating for inflation).
2. Boston Indicators Project, www.bostonindicators.org
3.  Report of the Massachusetts Senate Task Force on Public Higher Education, “Investing in Our Future,” March 2005.
4.  College Board, “Trends in College Pricing: 2007.”
5.  Massachusetts Board of Higher Education Task Force on Student Financial Aid, “Final Report,” October 2006