For too many college students, earning a diploma means going into thousands of dollars in  debt, working full-time, and handling a full-time college course load.

 

For decades, Massachusetts has been pulling resources out of our public colleges and universities. Now, tuitions and fees at those public colleges and universities are among the highest in the country, and students are struggling to pay for these rapidly increasing costs. College shouldn’t be only accessible for the rich: we need to re-invest in quality public higher education, so that middle- and working-class families in our state can once again afford to send their kids to college. 

A critical step toward social and economic mobility is increasingly out of reach for Latino and Black families in Massachusetts. Too many are forced to abandon their hope of a college degree — further exacerbating barriers people of color already face in higher education and in the workforce. In communities of color, only 36% of residents have a bachelor’s degree — compared to over 50% of residents in predominantly white communities.

We need to make our community colleges and state universities affordable again so that every young person who wants a college education is not burdened with decades of debt.