Hildreth Institute in WGBH

Massachusetts expands tuition-free community college to cover all students

This article originally appeared in WGBH.

Giana Sosa, a 19-year-old from New York City, enrolled at Cape Cod Community College straight out of high school last fall to study business administration.

“[Community college] was always the plan, but it was just perfect that I already had a job here on Cape and family here,” she said.

Sosa was struggling to pay for tuition and fees, sinking money into her car that she uses to commute between her job at a seafood restaurant in Chatham and the community college in West Barnstable. Now, Sosa and thousands of other students are getting some financial relief.

Last week, Gov. Maura Healey signed a nearly $58 billion state budget bill, which includes a $117 million provision to dramatically expand the state’s one-year-old free community college program.

The budget includes tuition-free community college for all full-time and part-time students like Sosa who apply for federal financial aid, regardless of their age. Higher ed observers say this initiative puts it among the broadest community college programs in the nation.

Supporters said they are enthusiastic about the program’s potential to increase access and success, but researchers expressed warned that tuition is not the only hurdle to successful student outcomes. And private four-year college officials privately grumble that the initiative might hurt their enrollment.

“We know that the competition is fierce and our residents face challenges so we’re not resting and we’re not taking our foot off the gas,” Healey said shortly after signing the budget in her office on Beacon Hill.

A year ago, Massachusetts launched a free community college program, known as MassReconnect, that covered tuition and fees for non-degree holders aged 25 and up. The newly expanded program, now rebranded MassEducate, will serve all residents without a bachelor’s degree, provided they take at least six credits and apply for federal financial aid. The state assistance is intended to pay for whatever the federal aid does not cover.

Real benefits for students

Students like Enjoyli Bell, 32, who’s studying part-time to be a paraprofessional at Roxbury Community College, have already seen the benefits of the program. “It got me to try and get a better career,” Bell said, walking across campus below a massive sign plastered on a red brick building facing Columbus Avenue in Boston: “If it wasn’t for community activism, you’d be on a highway right now,” the sign says.

“It works out for me because I didn’t have to pay out of pocket for tuition. I have two kids, so it’s not that easy dishing out money just here and there,” Bell added.

Enjoyli Bell, 32, is studying part-time to be a paraprofessional at Roxbury Community College. Last year, Bell benefited from the state’s free community college program, MassReconnect. “It works out for me because I didn’t have to pay out of pocket for tuition,” she said. “I have two kids so it’s not that easy dishing out money just here and there.”

Kirk Carapezza GBH News

Davis Jenkins, a senior researcher at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College, said he likes that MassEducate opens the door to part-time students of all ages.

“This draws students who wouldn’t otherwise go into higher education, which is good,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins, however, warned that without proper guidance and a plan, research shows these students are unlikely to graduate or transfer successfully to a four-year university. While the vast majority of community college students say they want to earn a bachelor’s degree, very few do within six years. The state needs to set up more counseling infrastructure to help them succeed, he said.

“Community colleges in Massachusetts — and generally — have a long way to go on those fronts,” Jenkins said.

Enrollment trends, funding and accountability

Community college enrollment in Massachusetts has spiked since last year when the program for adults first went into effect, following a decade of double-digit declines. State officials credit the free program for the first enrollment jump at the state’s public colleges in a decade. Enrollment in public four-year colleges has slowed, but enrollment in Massachusetts’ 15 community colleges rose by 9% on average last year.

Despite that increase, community colleges in Massachusetts admitted nearly 40% fewer students than a decade ago.

Today, from the Cape to the Berkshires, the state’s community colleges serve over 90,000 students, with about 70% attending part-time while balancing work and family commitments. Nearly 6 in 10 students are under 25 years old, according to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

Bahar Akman Imboden, a director with the nonprofit research firm the Hildredth Institute, emphasized the need to evaluate the effectiveness of these free programs for students.

“Once they are enrolled, do they have enough of a support system, enough financial aid to actually persist and complete?” Imboden asked.

Increasing the number of Americans with a college degree or certificate is growing increasingly important in today’s labor market. A new report from economists at the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce found that 85% of “good jobs” in the United States — defined as positions with family-sustaining wages, which vary by state — will go to workers with some form of post-secondary education and training by 2031.

One outstanding question is whether new, taxpayer funded tuition-free community college programs to help prepare the workforce are financially sustainable. The new Massachusetts program will be funded by revenue generated from the state’s recently implemented Fair Share Amendment, aka the “millionaires tax,” which imposes a 4% surtax on income over $1 million.

Impact on students and institutions

Students like Giana Sosa, who attends Cape Cod Community College, appreciate the investment, which frees up some extra spending cash.

“I don’t have the fanciest car, so I’ll just put that toward my car,” she said, laughing.

Sosa said she believes the promise of free tuition makes her and her peers more likely to attend two-year community colleges. “I know there’s a stigma about going to community college. People say that it might not be the best education, but I think a lot of graduating seniors from high school are really looking towards the impact that community college could bring.”

Even before the program’s expansion, officials at Cape Cod Community College said enrollment was up more than 30% this spring from the same time the previous year.

At Roxbury Community College, student Ahmad Shehadeh, 21, said he was thrilled to learn he and his classmates could now qualify for free tuition.

“A lot of people kind of don’t go to college because it’s just so expensive,” said Shehadeh, who’s studying architecture and art. “So by tuition being free, it’s kind of benefiting the community in a way, and I’m glad that other people like me will have the opportunity to go to college and pursue what they need to pursue: their dreams.”

Shehadeh, who said he is dual enrolled at nearby Northeastern University, noted he’s now more likely to take additional community college courses.

“Because the classes here will be free I might dibble-dabble,” he said, explaining how some of his friends told him they felt lost in big university science courses like physics. “You come to a community college and it’s a lot more accessible. They go a little bit more slow-paced and they give more individualized help rather than going to a four-year university when you’re in a big lecture hall.”

That sentiment worries the state’s private college leaders who are fighting over a shrinking pool of 18-year-old high school graduates in New England. Facing a demographic cliff nearing in 2026 because many American families delayed or chose not to have children after the 2008 recession, they quietly fear community colleges are eating into their enrollment numbers.

In a statement, Rob McCarron, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, said that the new state budget fails to make any new investment in the tens of thousands of equally deserving students from Massachusetts who choose to attend a private college.

“State policy should support all the different pathways that are available for students to obtain their degree, whether at a community college or a two- or four-year institution, public or private,” he said.

Columbia’s Davis Jenkins said four-year colleges struggling to fill their seats and offering steep tuition discounts just to get students in the door have a reason to be worried.

“We’re in a very pivotal time for higher education,” Jenkins said, noting that many Americans are questioning whether colleges are teaching relevant skills and are increasingly skeptical about the value of a four-year degree. “They should be concerned. There’s evidence in other states that [free community college] can draw away students.”