Lawmakers and colleges in Berkshire County have been discussing the prospect of free tuition in Massachusetts.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in January the state would provide a tuition-free education at public universities and colleges to families who earn less than $125,000: the Excelsior Scholarship.
In May, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts President James Birge was skeptical at the first hint of a tuition-free program in his backyard.
“When families will look at what the benefit of that program compared to what MCLA offers, I think they are going to see that MCLA is a better option for them,” Birge says.
Under the New York plan, students would still have to pay for room and board – up to twice the cost of tuition on average.
Birge says it could be a bad deal for low-income families in the end.
“Lower-income families are not going to fare well with this program. It’s very clear,” Birge says. “You know, the Excelsior grant is a last dollar program and so students would have to use – let’s talk about Pell students, they’d have to use their Pell awards to cover the cost of their tuition first. But that doesn’t cover anything related to fees or room and board.”’
MCLA in North Adams offers incentives to Massachusetts and New York students to partially cover tuition and fees.
In-state students pay roughly $1,000 a year for tuition, and New York students pay $1,500 in tuition – with fees and room and board, they pay $20,000. Other out-of-state students pay $28,000.
Massachusetts lawmakers have been testing the waters of tuition-free education. Republican Governor Charlie Baker spoke on his YouTube Channel.
“We could create a program that would make it possible for kids in the City of Boston to go to school to get a two-year degree or a four-year degree without paying tuition or fees,” Baker says.
Baker announced in May the creation of The Boston Bridge, a tuition-free pilot program for 2017 high school graduates who live in Boston. Baker says it will help eliminate financial barriers that prevent low-income students from going to college full-time, in order to boost college completion rates.
In June, Birge’s tune changed, he says, once he saw the possibilities in the Boston-based program, if it was to expand statewide.
“The Boston Bridge Program could be what allows them to go to college,” Birge says, “because without that, they might not be able to.”
Boston Bridge-eligible students must meet federal Pell grant income standards to qualify.
Birge says he’ll support anything that makes a strong public liberal arts education accessible to low-income students; 46 percent of MCLA students are Pell eligible.
Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal, a Democrat from the first district, says expanding the pilot program to community colleges would be a good start.
“Community colleges are very important part of the answer, but again I also think that out to be the evolutionary stage,” Neal says. “Let’s try it.”
Neal is concerned about what the program will mean for taxpayers. Neal supports expanding the program little by little.
“When I hear the word free, the word free means someone is going to pay and then that’s, that’s the better approach,” Neal says.
Berkshire Community College President Ellen Kennedy agrees.
“It’s great for the families of Massachusetts. The devil is in the details of where the supporting revenue would come from,” Kennedy says, “to allow the colleges to provide the kind of services they need to provide, and to provide… to pay for the faculty – to pay for everything.”
Kennedy says it won’t matter if tuition is free if the education they get is limited by a lack of funding.
“How do you make sure there are enough resources for the college or university to operate and to provide the courses and the support services for every student to be successful?” Kennedy asks.
Kennedy says it would have a significant impact on reducing student debt.
“The intention would be to reduce or eliminate loans altogether,” Kennedy says.
Kennedy says this could be a viable tool for states to do their part to reform how college is paid for.
At a town hall in Pittsfield last week, Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said the Republican majority in Congress has tabled any negotiations on refinancing the student debt system.
