Even in times of economic uncertainty, some investments are worth making, according to state Senate President Karen Spilka.
That was the message Spilka shared on Monday after she appeared at Middlesex Community College’s Lowell campus to announce the upper chamber’s plan to provide a free college education to every Massachusetts resident who wants one.
“We have the money, and to not invest right now would be an unfortunate set of circumstances for the commonwealth. Everybody talks about the outmigration — people leaving — the need to be more affordable, more competitive, be more equitable, those are the three major words all of us hear wherever we go across the state,” Spilka said.
The plan offered by the Senate president, along with Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues and Senate Higher Education Chair Jo Comerford, would spend $75.5 million to do just that, Spilka said, by offering free education — that’s tuition and fees entirely paid — at the state’s 15 community college campuses. Students earning less than 125% of the state’s median income would also get $1,200 each year for books and supplies.
The Senate’s plan expands on a program already in place in the Bay State called MassReconnect, which allows students over the age of 25 to attend community college for free if they don’t already have a degree.
Phil Sisson, the president of Middlesex Community College, said that there are already students taking advantage of that program and pursuing a degree at his school.
As of this fall, if the Senate’s new plan — they’re calling it MassEducate — makes it through budget negotiations, the remaining about 7,500 paying students at Middlesex could see their school bills dropped to zero, and the same goes for the other over 80,000 students taking classes at a community college across the state.
“MassReconnect has been a Commonwealth of Massachusetts results-producing policy that provided a vigorous catalyst that brought over a thousand adults over the age of 25 to our Lowell and Bedford campuses at Middlesex to pursue their education since it was signed into law last August. Now, all of our campuses look forward to welcoming and supporting all future students who will be able to take advantage of MassEducate when this latest game changing program takes effect,” Sisson said.
One of those students is Jose Cervantes, a mason from Lowell.
Cervantes said the program is “a huge deal” for working parents like him who never thought college was an option. The 38-year-old says he was brought to the U.S. by his mother as a two-year-old. After high school, he said, he got right to working 60-hour weeks to make ends meet, and he’s been at it for 21 years since.
He’s not afraid of hard work — a fact he demonstrated by holding up his calloused hands, still showing the signs of working through Sunday evening — but you can only make it so far in his business without some amount of schooling, he said. Cervantes said that even though he’s good at his job, it “comes with a ceiling. There is only so much money you can make before you have to bump up to being the big boss.”
Cervantes said MassReconnect and MassEducate are a huge “thank you” to the workers like him that kept the economy moving through the pandemic, effectively paving a path to college for already strapped families. Spilka said Cervantes is a clear indicator that if you open the door, people will walk through it.
“The MassReconnect proves that it works. The nursing program that the Senate added proves that it works,” she said. “Massachusetts desperately needs workers. These students are going to stay in Massachusetts, we’re crazy not to tap into their skills and abilities and passions.”
The Senate’s education plan is included as part of their fiscal 2025 budget, the full details of which will be made available this Tuesday.
