Hildreth Institute in MassLive

Debt-free college? Mass. advocates say its time has come

This article originally appeared in MassLive by Alvin Buyinza | ABuyinza@masslive.com

When Deb McCarthy graduated from Bridgewater State University in 1989, college costs were low enough for her to manage student loan debt, purchase a home, own a car, and raise a family. McCarthy’s children, three of whom graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, were able to do the same.

But, that privilege wasn’t extended to her fourth child, an educator, who wasn’t able to get by on her own after graduating without her mother’s help. McCarthy said that her youngest daughter was “one of the lucky ones.”

After speaking with several other teachers in Massachusetts last year, McCarthy found that many educators were so burdened by student loan debt they struggled to make ends meet.

McCarthy, who is now the vice president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, is part of the Higher Ed for All Coalition, a group that’s pushing lawmakers to pass a bill to establish a debt-free higher education in Massachusetts.

“This is a crisis for public education, as it is financially impossible to handle debt, buy a home, own a car, or raise a family if you choose to be an educator in Massachusetts,” she said during an appearance before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Higher Education on Monday.

Legislation sponsored by Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Hampshire, known as the “Cherish Act,” would create – among other things – a debt-free public higher education program for all Massachusetts residents this fiscal year with an investment of $2,000 per “high-need” student.

“The Cherish Act is about investing in our students, in our knowledge-driven economy, and in the future of our commonwealth,” Rep. Sean Garballey, D-Middlesex, a House sponsor of the bill, said. “Our goals are a more educated workforce, of course, increased earnings, and investing in the economic strength of our commonwealth, resulting in a more competitive commonwealth and an affordable state.”

The act, which is estimated to cost the state around $790 million over the course of several years, could be a way to usher in more college-educated adults into the workforce, according to Collin Jones, a senior policy analyst at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

By 2030, Massachusetts’ college-educated workforce could drop by 200,000 people, Jones said.

Dressed in brightly colored-blue t-shirts, dozens of members of the MTA, filled the State House’s Gardner Auditorium, to call on lawmakers to approve the legislation.

“There is no racial or economic justice in the commonwealth without access to high-quality debt-free higher education,” MTA President Max Page said.

The crowd erupted in applause.

State funding cuts toward higher education have forced the commonwealth’s public colleges to take more from students’ wallets. After accounting for inflation, tuition and fees at four-year colleges in Massachusetts have skyrocketed 135% over the past two decades, according to a report from the Hildreth Institute, a Boston-based education think tank.

The rising costs have hit students of color and low-income students the hardest, forcing many of them to either drop out or take on heavier amounts of student loans compared to their more affluent white peers, advocates argued.

“If you get students to public college debt-free, that’s terrific, but if you send them to underfunded institutions, where adjuncts are exploited, where the buildings are falling apart, and the students are expected to pay for them, without the student support, so that students can have a successful experience and get to graduation, well that’s another form of racism and classism,” Page said.

Adjunct faculty also could benefit

If it’s eventually passed and signed into law, the Cherish Act also would increase pay and benefits for adjunct professors and part-time faculty at state schools, many of whom struggle to make ends meet due to low pay and no benefits.

Unlike, full-time professors, who hold long-term contracts, adjunct professors are paid on a semester-by-semester basis without any job security assured in the months between the start of a new academic term.

“This instability affects not only our faculty, it affects our students,” said Phillys Keenan, an adjunct mathematics professor at Greenfield Community College. “Our students want to know, what are we teaching next semester? And all we can say is, ‘uh, we haven’t been given a schedule yet’.”

For the past 20 years, Keenan has devoted her life to being an adjunct professor. Although Keenan said she could “tolerate” the lack of security that came with her job, it’s also prevented her from getting a bank loan for a home.

“They could look at my income year to year, and they could see, ‘yes, you have an almost perfect credit rating, yes, your income tends to be similar, but you don’t know that you have a job next week,’” she said. “You don’t know when you’re going to be working and getting income.”

Eventually, Keenan was able to buy a home through Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit dedicated to providing affordable homes to people in need. Keenan said the non-profit trusted her because they “knew the system” and could see she paid her rent and therefore could pay a mortgage.

Guy Bellino, who teaches public policy as an adjunct at Salem State University, described the relationship between colleges and adjuncts as “highly exploitative.”

“We’re sat trying to do something that we love, and love isn’t enough to pay the bills,” Bellino said. “I still owe gas, and utility bills from last winter. This year I couldn’t afford to get my kids new shoes and school supplies which was humbling.”

In addition to struggling to provide for his children, Bellino said he’s also carrying a “crushing” amount of student loan debt.

“You as a [Congress], this is your chance here. Where is a public commitment? This is your chance to do something about it,” he said speaking to the row of state lawmakers. If the Bay State’s politicos don’t pass the bill, Bellino fears that more racial and economic inequality could persist. “Cherish is your window of opportunity to do something and show that our deliberative bodies can facilitate real meaningful change.”