Are you frustrated with the federal government’s cuts to higher education? Do you want to help improve financial aid access in Massachusetts and even fight for tuition-free college? Do you also live in or around Boston?
Then join PHENOM at the Massachusetts State House on July 18th, 1-5 PM at room A-2 in support of two revolutionary bills that would make college more affordable for everyone in Massachusetts!
All you have to do is sign up to speak here. Or, if you can’t voice your support for these bills in person, then send in written testimony through here! Still need more information about the bills and how you can make a difference? Then use this link for an info session this Wednesday or read more below!
Intro
Two bills PHENOM is fighting for, the Debt-Free Future Act (HD.1473/SD.300) and the Financial Aid Reform Act (SD.2477/HD.2461), are set to be considered at a hearing on July 18th, this Friday, between 1-5 PM. While these are both quite different bills, each would make affording college much, much easier for everyone in the Commonwealth.
The Debt-Free Future Act is simple yet revolutionary: it would enshrine all public colleges as tuition-free for all Massachusetts citizens and force the state to fund it through a combination of existing federal and state funding.
The Financial Aid Reform Act, meanwhile, is focused on a massive overhaul of Massachusetts’ current financial aid system. This bill aims to help students hear about all of the available financial aid opportunities as well as get aid in a timely manner through improvements like a single website, an appeals process, and expanded advertising.
Financial Aid Reform
The Financial Aid Reform Bill is much more focused on technical fixes to Massachusetts’ financial aid system to make it work smarter, not just harder. Massachusetts has made admirable progress in increasing students’ access to financial aid in the last ten years: from 2015 to 2024, financial investment increased by nearly 75 percent. The problem? That new aid was not getting to the bright students who needed it the most!
PHENOM and our legislative allies introduced the Financial Aid Reform Bill after growing reports of students not getting financial aid on time, not getting enough of it, and not hearing about numerous aid opportunities until it was too late. By creating a single website to apply for all financial aid programs, an appeals system for students who don’t get enough aid, and funding for advertisement, this bill could tackle all of these problems at once.
Especially since more and more politicians on Beacon Hill have voiced concerns about Massachusetts’ broken financial aid system, with the right amount of pressure this has a real chance of passing.
Tuition-Free Public College (DFF)
The Debt-Free Future Act (DFF), while more ambitious, exemplifies the bold political changes we need in Massachusetts in America in order to rebuild the middle class and improve working families’ quality of life.
Critics who ask how Massachusetts could afford something as expensive as tuition-free college – which DFF would implement if passed – are missing the point. First off, free college is exactly the kind of major investment Massachusetts should be making. Second, free college is perfectly doable because, if enough people demand it, we will find the money for it.
In fact, the money is already here. We know that not only because Massachusetts is America’s wealthiest state. We also know it is feasible because Denmark, a European country with about the same population but a lower GDP, has free college and somehow we do not. As PHENOM organizer Ruo Wu has pointed out, Sweden also has a similar population and GDP to Massachusetts, yet they have free college and we do not.
We also know it because, according to past sponsor Rep. Natalie Higgins in 2024, DFF would cost about $1.8 billion. While this is expensive at first glance, the Fair Share Amendment alone (the 4 percent tax on millionaires) could pay for it.
Tuition-free college in Massachusetts would pay for itself, since making a college education as accessible as possible would massively increase social mobility as well as protect Massachusetts’ economic edge. By making a college education a fundamental right, we can also end the crippling student debt crisis caused by years of rising tuition costs and funding cuts.
Unfortunately, the federal government’s current defunding of higher education makes passing DFF even more difficult. Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill, in Section 83004, bans states from using Pell grants to fund free college. This is not only how our Debt-Free Future Act would work, but is also how Massachusetts’ free community college program and other free college programs at UMass and state universities work as well.
Help us defend the right to higher education!
By showing out in full force this Friday, we can send a clear message to our legislators that an affordable college education is crucial to our economy and to our democracy. The Trump administration’ s cruel funding cuts, while a crisis, are also a major opportunity for Massachusetts to use our vast wealth to fund our own free college system and show the rest of America how to fight back.