Pointing to lagging funds for Massachusetts’s public universities, higher education representatives voiced overwhelming support for Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to give $2 billion to state schools before the Joint Committee on Higher Education yesterday.
Patrick’s plan, announced last month, would provide a $2 billion 10-year bond to Massachusetts public schools to help improve campus facilities. The plan calls for $1 billion for the five University of Massachusetts campuses and $1 billion to other state and community colleges for the construction and renovation of buildings.
Bridgewater State College President Dana Mohler-Faria said Massachusetts lags behind most other states in funding higher education. On average, states put 12.5 percent of funding they receive from the federal government toward education, while Massachusetts directs only 2.8 percent of those funds toward education, she said, adding the last 10-year state bond for higher education, worth $618 million, was passed in 1995.
“Education is a top priority [because of its] link to the economic and social . . . prosperity of individuals,” Mohler-Faria said. “Every institution stands to benefit from this bond bill . . . [because it would] reduce financial burdens on public education students.”
“If we push our students to succeed, we must provide the facilities to help them succeed,” said Capital Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Executive Office assistant secretary Jay Gonzalez.
When Patrick introduced the bill two weeks ago, he cited the necessity of “high-quality instructional and research facilities” to offer students the opportunity to train for a growing Massachusetts economy.
If the bill passes, the Board of Education will waive a requirement that universities must match state funding for large-scale projects, according to The Boston Globe.
Framingham State College spokesman Peter Chisholm, who attended on behalf of Framingham State and Massachusetts Bay Community College, said he hopes Framingham State will be able to acquire $51 million for a lab annex in the school’s major classroom building as the campus undergoes wide-scale renovations to some buildings for the first time since the 1970s. Chisholm said MBCC is in need of $21 million for the construction of a new classroom building on the Wellesley College campus for the Allied Health Sciences Program.
