The Massachusetts Legislature has a new committee to investigate, study, and make recommendations on the issue of student loans and debt. They are holding hearings around the state and want to hear about the current debt landscape, its impact, and alternatives or solutions to help alleviate the effect of loans and debt on students and […]
Both the Massachusetts House and Senate have made important statements by allocating a share of projected casino revenues to public higher education. As the casino legislation moves to Conference Committee, PHENOM applauds the coalition that made the case for this, thanks the legislators who made this happen, and – most important – remains vigilant to […]
Student debt in this country exceeds total credit card debt. In a few months, total student loan debt will exceed a trillion dollars. That’s $1,000,000,000,000. The height of a stack of one trillion one dollar bills would reach more than one quarter of the way from the earth to the moon. This is not just […]
PHENOM has joined with a number of other organizations in filing a formal complaint with the state’s Division of Health Care Finance and Policy concerning student health insurance. At UMass Amherst and UMass Dartmouth, students’ insurance plans have been changed to include “co-insurance” for services or procedures not available at their campus health service. Unlike […]
For a Great State of Mind is PHENOM’s multi-year grassroots campaign to have Massachusetts dramatically increase its investment in public higher education and lower the costs for students. With the rising cost of tuition and fees, immigrants, the poor, and increasingly the middle class are being squeezed out of higher education, at exactly the same […]
PHENOM is an enthusiastic endorser of a new national Campaign for the Future of Higher Education – CFHE for short. This grassroots national campaign to support quality higher education was initiated in Los Angeles on January 21, 2011 by leaders of faculty organizations from 21 states. Several PHENOM members attended this planning meeting
Two of PHENOM’s top legislative priorities — tax reform and financial aid — had hearings at the State House in May. On May 5, PHENOM turned out 50+ people from across the state to show support for An Act to Invest in Our Communities which would generate an additional $1.3 billion per year in revenue for the […]
With the end of federal stimulus funding, we have a nearly $2 Billion budget deficit. That means our schools, Local Aid, and emergency and health care services face deep cuts this spring. Meanwhile, wealthy investors and high-income households have had their Bush-era tax cuts extended, worsening deficits and economic inequality. This legislation would generate $1.2 billion without imposing […]
In line with the Campaign for A Great State of Mind, we need to take bold steps toward affordability, access, retention and quality.
PHENOM has worked closely with the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM) and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Association (MIRA) on Education Opportunity. Right now, children of undocumented immigrants must pay out-of-state tuition rates at public colleges even if they have gone to Massachusetts public schools their whole lives. We seek to rectify this inequity either through legislation […]