The Higher Education Committee recommended forwarding a package of bills to the Senate and House to improve the state’s higher education system — with the main focus of the improvements involving lowering state tuition fees, which are currently one of the highest in the nation.
The bills called for a reexamination of tuition fees, stricter penalties against hazing, higher education workforce training, scholarships for early childhood education and care professionals and increased coverage of online programs.
Vice Chair of the Committee Sen. Steven Panagiotakos (D- Middlesex) said the committee had a difficult time agreeing upon a package over the nearly one-year negotiation process.
“It has been a long process, in which we haven’t always agreed upon everything, but after much negotiating and soul-searching the members came to an agreement,” Panagiotakos said. “Higher education is at a crossroads today.”
Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (D- Hampshire, Franklin) said tuition hikes create unfair disadvantages to students from lower-income households, adding that Massachusetts public education “charges $3,200 above the national average – one of the most expensive states for public higher education in the country.”
“This bill puts the ‘public’ back into public higher education, with dramatic improvements to acceptability and affordability,” he continued.
Rep. Smitty Pignatelli (D-Lenox) reminded the committee that these bills would directly impact thousands of students and that “people struggling to improve themselves, who can’t afford private schools” are growing unable to afford public schooling’s rising costs.
“The presumption that the state’s commitment to education ends at the senior year of high school needs to stop,” Pignatelli said.
The bills also entail a seven-year commitment to help close the almost $400 million budget shortfall in Massachusetts public higher education.
“The state of Massachusetts can’t afford to allow working-class and middle-class parents to avoid having their children get a higher education because of the costs,” Moore said.
Rep. Christopher Donelan (D-Orange) and other committee members pointed out that the referral of these bills is not the end of the campaign to improve public higher education. The bills need to be passed by the legislatures of the Statehouse and Senate.
Some of the bills have had initial public hearings while others, such as fee waivers for veterans, are not due for public hearings until May.
Despite the remaining hurdles, Rosenberg praised the package of bills as “a landmark piece of legislation,” adding that “only a couple of remaining differences” are present among committee members and the Senate and House at large.