Urge Your State Legislators to Support Public Higher Education
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Workers in public higher education have been facing a barrage of attacks from the Trump administration. Grants supporting important research and academic work are being disrupted under the guise of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion policies that the administration is trying to stop. Foreign students and educators are made to feel unsafe as the federal government mounts aggressive, illegal crackdowns on immigration, free speech and academic freedom.
The federal government's actions are setting up a funding crisis that will imperil every university's mission to support critical research that benefits the public good and provides high-quality education and opportunity for all. Weakening higher education will destroy jobs, damage local economies, slam the brakes on clinical trials, and cost the public vital medical breakthroughs.
We hold that colleges and universities – especially public colleges and universities – are fundamental to maintaining a high quality of life, a dynamic economy and a robust democracy.
The Massachusetts State Legislature is currently considering a supplemental budget (H.55) to allocate funds from the $1.32 billion in surplus Fair Share Amendment funds from fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024. The Fair Share Amendment, passed by voters in November 2022, creates a 4 percent tax on the portion of a person's annual income above $1 million and dedicates the funds raised to public education and transportation.
The Legislature has the opportunity to use these funds to help offset the impact of actions by the Trump administration to cut our public higher education institutions. Please send a message now to your state representative and senator asking them to support including a reserve of $200 million in the supplemental budget related to the Fair Share Amendment surplus (H.55) to be used to maintain the vital work happening at our public colleges and universities should that work unjustly lose federal funding.
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