Massachusetts May Take Millionaires' Money And Send Everyone To Community College!
Massachusetts May Take Millionaires' Money And Send Everyone To Community College!
It's already free for those over 25!
Massachusetts has already had a lot of success with its millionaire tax, raising well beyond what was initially projected, and now they have a lot of extra money with which to make things nice! They’ve also had a whole lot of success with MassReconnect, the program that made community college free for those over 25.
So now, the state Senate wants to take that money from the millionaire tax and use it to make community college free for everybody.
Inside Higher Ed reports that the new program, MassEducate, “is a cornerstone of the Senate’s budget, which the chamber approved last week.” Now all that’s left for the Legislature is to figure out how much it will actually cost.
“MassEducate will provide opportunity to so many students who will have a better shot at achieving good, family-supporting jobs, and perhaps fulfill their goals […] of moving on to a four-year college and staying in our state and getting on the path of the American Dream that every Massachusetts resident deserves,” said Democrat Karen Spilka, president of the Massachusetts state Senate.
It’s not everything, sure, but it will increase the amount that people will be able to earn and significantly decrease the cost of going to a four-year college if that is what they want.
According to research conducted by the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges and Boston Consulting Group, free community college for all is projected to increase yearly enrollment by 4,000 students, and yearly degree completion by 2,000. The association estimates that students who enroll in community college through MassEducate would earn $160 million more in total annual wages than if they didn’t attend community college.
Gee, it’s almost as if this is actually something that will benefit more people than just those receiving free tuition at community college.
The MassEducate proposal will also include $1200 for books and other supplies for lower income students, and an additional $10 million to support those students.
While universal college may seem like a newfangled and even radical idea, practically all public universities and community colleges were tuition-free (and many even had open enrollment). Do you wanna guess why they started changing it? And who kicked off that change?
It was Ronald Reagan in the California Governor’s office with a chip on his shoulder about students protesting the Vietnam War.
When he was elected in 1966, he instituted tuition at California state schools in order to “get rid of undesirables […] those who are there to carry signs and not to study might think twice to carry picket signs.”
As it turns out, that did absolutely nothing to stop the protests against the Vietnam War, because no one was actually only going to school just to carry picket signs. It did, however, kick off a trend. By the 1990s, free state and community college tuition was memory-holed.
But we’re getting closer! Free community college for everyone or for certain qualifying students is now a reality in nearly 30 states, and — given the high likelihood of Governor Maura Healey signing off on it — Massachusetts will be next.
PREVIOUSLY:
So how long until everyone notices that this "laboratory of democracy" is doing much better than places that aren't taxing millionaires?
How long until they take the state to scotus to have this banned just because it makes people's lives better?
Happy nice time story, Robyn. I just want to clarify one thing: the University of California didn’t start charging tuition after 1966, it started charging *fees*
That means the UC system is still tuition-free, technically