The state Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee will soon debate the Commonwealth’s spending plan for Fiscal Year 2025. This committee will reconcile differences in respective budgets drawn up by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Senate budget proposed several significant provisions that bring us closer to achieving debt-free, high-quality public higher education. We must ensure that these provisions are supported by the House members on the Budget Conference Committee and make it into the final state budget.

Please email your legislators telling them to support the Senate budget provisions related to public higher education. These include:

• Free Community College Program (1596-2501/Sec. 17): Support the inclusion of this line item and outside section from the Senate budget, which would create a program to cover the cost of tuition and fees at community college for all students and provide additional aid for books, supplies and other expenses for Pell Grant-eligible students. This program brings us closer to achieving debt-free, high-quality public colleges and universities.

• Financial Aid Expansion (1596-2414): Support this line item from the Senate budget that includes additional funding for a scholarship program to provide financial assistance to Massachusetts students enrolled in a program at a public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth.

• Higher Ed. Deferred Maintenance Capital Program (1596-2417): Support this line item from the House budget that provides $10 million to support projects addressing deferred maintenance at public colleges and universities in the Commonwealth.  

• State University SUCCESS Program (1596-2439): Support this line item from the House budget that provides $14 million to state universities to provide wraparound supports and services to improve outcomes for students.

• Higher Education Persistence and Basic Needs Program (1596-2502): Support this line item from the Senate’s budget that provides $10 million to state universities and community colleges to support student costs of attendance, including unanticipated costs that may jeopardize a student’s ability to continue their education, including transportation, food, short-term housing and child care.

• SUCCESS Grants (7100-4002): Support the funding level included in the Senate budget, which will ensure that our most vulnerable students attending a Massachusetts community college have access to key wrapround services so that they can stay enrolled and succeed.

• Higher Education Quality and Affordability Commission (Sec. 165 of the Senate Budget): Support the inclusion of this outside section from the Senate budget, which would create a commission to make recommendations on improving quality and affordability of higher education in the Commonwealth, including state financial assistance programs.

Improving access to public colleges and universities by removing financial barriers that students face in their pursuit of higher education is a step toward greater social, racial and economic justice in Massachusetts.

Click here to learn more about higher education victories in the Senate budget.