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By Will Mbah
Candidate for Somerville City Councilor at Large

Among the new spending lines that have been most welcomed in the FY2024 Massachusetts State Budget are two funds that look forward to tuition-free Community College in the Commonwealth.

First, beginning this month, any qualified Massachusetts resident who is at least 25 years old and has a high school degree or GED but no associate’s or bachelor’s degree, can attend a community college without tuition. This program, called Mass Reconnect, brings back to school people who had to defer education for work and family obligations. The program is funded at $20 million for the first year.

Second, starting next year, free tuition will be available for all Commonwealth resident students, including new high school graduates. In order to prepare the 15 campuses with facilities improvements and new hiring, the budget has provided $12 million funding for this year. Future budgets will have the funding to cover the tuition for the students who enroll.

The two new programs expand the list of scholarships, loans and other assistance that the state now provides at all the community colleges, state colleges and University of Massachusetts campuses. To participate, each student must fill out a standard federal grant/loan application form (FAFSA) and the data it records about their income and resources becomes the basis to determine eligibility under any program.

The Mass Reconnect tuition-forgiveness for an over-25 age student will apply after he/she takes advantage of any other available grant or scholarship. The grant can be as high $10,244 per year, which is the tuition at Bunker Hill and other Boston area Community Colleges. Another $250 per semester covers the textbooks and course materials each student will need. The student will still pay for housing, transportation, cafeteria, etc., to the extent these costs are not covered by other programs.

We do not yet know how many eligible students have enrolled so far this year. However, officials of the Department of Education have appeared on the news recently to encourage applications and they have given an estimate of about 8,000 students, state-wide, who are likely to participate in Mass Reconnect in the “next few years.” (WBUR, WGBH)

This estimate is small, in comparison to the total 696,000 Massachusetts residents, who have some college credits but have not completed degrees. It is also substantially below the estimate of 48,000 students that the advocacy groups presented when they testified at the state budget hearings in spring 2023 (Boston Daily DIG).

What is likely to be the impact on Somerville students?

Somerville High School keeps and publishes data on the future plans of its graduating students, who number 300-320 each year. They report on their website that about 48% expect to attend a four-year college; about 15% intend to enroll in a community college, and another 15% plan to enter the workforce and gain job training. Finally, about 7% of students do not know what they will be doing after high school.

Based on these percentages, we could foresee that the all the students, intending to enroll at a Community College, would get free tuition in 2024 – that is, 45 students. Some of the other students, who expect to enter the workforce and who do not have fixed plans, may now be able to afford Community College for their job training. Perhaps 15 or 20 of these students would participate. A few of the students in the group of 48%, who will pursue a four-year degree, might decide to do their first two years at a Community College to save on tuition and then transfer – another 10 or 15 students. Thus, 75-80 graduates of Somerville High might take advantage of the free tuition program each year.

Another way to estimate the potential beneficiaries is to consult a database of college searches by Somerville students. A website called: “Niche network” allows high school to research campuses and financial programs, and it then publishes the search data as: “The 10 most “Popular Colleges” of Somerville High School students. Bunker Hill Community College is number ten on this list with 73 student inquiries out of a total of 1,397 searches. This compares to 507 searches about UMass campuses and 726 searches about Boston-area private colleges.

These numbers suggest that the counselors at the high school will be able to guide several more graduates, each year, to a community college program.         

Somerville already is among the US cities with the highest percentages of college graduates – 65% of its total population. But this still leaves some 11,000 to 12,000 working-age residents with a high school degree or equivalency but without the opportunity to complete a higher degree.

Bunker Hill CC and the other nearby community colleges offer career-oriented programs in health care and nursing, bio-technology, criminal justice, teaching and childcare, and computer science. Mass Reconnect could offer Somerville residents, now working in these fields, with opportunities to advance.

Somerville High School Career Counselors

Statewide the FY2024 program of free tuition for over-25 age students was estimated to attract over five years 48,000 adults at a cumulative cost of $46 million according to EY Parthenon – quote from DIG Boston, January 27,2023.

MassINC forum on college affordability on January 25, 2023.

If you want to learn more or support my campaign, please visit my website at willmbah.com.