Welcome back to the PHENOM Update, PHENOM’s monthly newsletter! Our goals of more affordable, accessible higher education just got a major boost in July, with Governor Healey and the Massachusetts State House approving $117 million in the new state budget for tuition-free community college! After months of deliberation, the House of Representatives and Senate came together to set aside enough money to make all Massachusetts community colleges tuition-free for all students.
While as of now the funding is safe, the next steps will be safeguarding this invaluable boost to public education. In light of the recent trend of budget cuts, it is crucial that we show just how helpful tuition-free community college will be to Massachusetts’ hardworking families to save it from the chopping block. As our Executive Director Henry Morgan has noted, there is an importance difference between fiscal responsibility and violent austerity.
But protecting existing funding will not be enough. Making all Massachusetts community colleges tuition-free will mean thousands more citizens than before will enroll now that they will be much more affordable. For free community college to work, we will need to win even more funding to keep up with higher demand to ensure that quantity doesn’t hurt quality.
Without helping these schools rise to the occasion, the victory of free community college could be in vain: as seen with the precursor MassReconnect program, a more restricted free community college program for in-need citizens 25 and over, funding free tuition without upping funding in general to handle larger student bodies only strains the system and can make the educational experience worse for everyone.
So if you want to help us protect free community college in the long haul, don’t wait: write Governor Healey’s Governor’s Council and urge them to strengthen funding for community colleges!
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In Other News:
Why Private Universities Shouldn’t Fear the Endowment Tax
Check out Communications Chair Liam Rue’s newest article in support of the Endowment Tax! The second installment of a two part essay, this article highlights how elite universities’ fear mongering about the Endowment Tax Act’s potential financial harm to private colleges does not hold up.
Building on the first article covering the wealthiest universities’ problematic reliance on Wall Street speculation for their huge fortunes, this article takes a look at how little of these fortunes universities like Harvard University and Amherst College actually use for students. In turn, it points out how the Endowment Tax would be a drop in the bucket for these institutions, while generating billions every year to benefit tens of thousands of public college students.
Georgetown Report Finds College Graduates Will Have Most “Good Jobs” by 2031
In our rapidly changing world, one constant is the ever-growing importance of a college education for accessing well-paying jobs. A new study out of Georgetown University found that 15 million more well-paying jobs, or “good jobs” would be available by 2031.
While it projects having a bachelor’s degree and beyond will ensure access to these good jobs, the report also highlights the declining power of the high school diploma alone: the Georgetown researchers predict that there will be 600,000 less well-paying jobs for workers with high school diplomas or less.
The recent passage of tuition-free community college in Massachusetts is a great step towards facing these challenges and preparing citizens for sought-after jobs. But with such growing demand for bachelor’s and graduate degrees, it will be essential to use this victory as a stepping stone towards finally making four-year degrees tuition-free for all and ensuring all Bay Staters can access these well-paying jobs.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the latest organization to sue the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA), a private non-profit from Missouri dedicated to billing students for their student loans and helping them navigate the student loan process.
As the Guardian reports, after continually sending students late bills, overcharging students for their loan payments, and denying student loan relief to eligible public workers, AFT is accusing the group of gross incompetence at the expense of the vulnerable students they’re supposed to be helping.
That incompetence amounts not only to abuse, according to the Student Borrower Protection Center, but also to profiteering, according to Massachusetts’ progressive representative Ayanna Pressley. According to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, this organization’s behavior even bordered on fraud, as MOHELA “diverted firefighters or teachers with loans from live agents to “dead-end parts of its website””.
This is just another example of the rampant negligence and abuses characteristic of the student loan industry, and how better regulating them (if not shutting down many of them) is critical in order to end the student debt crisis.
What Does the Newest FAFSA Delay Mean for Schools and Students?
As the bungled update of the FAFSA has caused almost a year’s worth of headaches for students and colleges alike, the revamped version has been delayed once again to December 1st.
These delays only hinder more high school students from finding the right schools for them, as they have to wait even longer to get financial aid packages. As HigherEd Drive reports, it also makes it harder for colleges to secure extra funding to meet the demands of students based on early FAFSA submissions.
This disaster of epic proportions also paints a picture of an underfunded and unorganized Department of Education (DOE), and in particular the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) tasked with managing the FAFSA. Indeed, in 2023 there were already reports of underfunding at the agency.
Another factor is just how many responsibilities the FSA has: in addition to the FAFSA responsibilities, the agency is also burdened with the nation’s federal student loan portfolio, making it a focal point in the national student debt crisis. The complex web of student loan payments and offerings the FSA plays a key role in handling totals over $1.6 trillion.
This conundrum brings us back to some evergreen questions: first, how much easier would the financial aid process be without the overwhelming reliance on student debt, and second, how do the unnecessary overreliances on student loans and on financial aid feed into each other and prevent simply funding more affordable tuition?