By Daniela L. Ginsburg
Boston University News Service
With the cost of college tuition on the rise, many states—including Massachusetts—have turned to free community college.
To decrease student debt, widen the number of students able to attend university and expand opportunities, many states have looked at free community college for students.
MassEducate, a tuition-free community college program for all Massachusetts residents, was proposed by the Senate in May. Residents who have lived in Massachusetts for a year or more and have a high school diploma are eligible for free tuition. Students may also qualify for allowances up to $1,200 for supplies under the program.
Governor Healey signed the program into law, providing free education for eligible students at 15+ community colleges. This opens the doors to the possibility of creating programs like this at the federal level as well.
Joshua Goodman, an Associate Professor of Education and Economics at Boston University, noted that moving free community college to a federal level wouldn’t be effective in some aspects.
One of these aspects would be the fact that many states have implemented free community college in their states, such as Tennessee with their Tennessee Promise program. The program covers fees not covered by financial aid. Since many states across the US have implemented free community college there is less of a need to move it towards a federal level.
“Part of the reason you haven’t seen a federal move is just that a lot of states have been doing this on their own,” Goodman said.
Another aspect would be that lower-income students are already provided with financial aid when applying to colleges.
“Given the current size of federal financial aid given to low-income students who apply for federal aid, community college is roughly free for all of them,” said Goodman. “It’s not totally clear that you need an additional policy, at least if you want to cover low-income students.”
Goodman said that if a program for free community college nationwide was brought to the federal level, there would be three main effects.
The first effect would impact those unaware of their free aid. A federal aid program would inform them of their aid and allow them to be “pulled into the community college sector,” Goodman said. This would increase application rates for community colleges greatly. However, this could decline regular college application rates.
The second effect would be career prospects. There’s a benefit for students who originally would not have gone to college and now opt to go since given the opportunity to attend for free. So many more doors will open for these students when applying for jobs post-grad.
There are differences in education standards for community colleges and the standard four-year college. Free community college would be beneficial in terms of financial investment and could impact some students by providing them with the opportunity to further their education.
“It is pretty clear that there are big differences between two and four-year colleges in the graduation rates of the students who attend them, in the resources that those students are exposed to on those campuses and in the quality, in the academic strength of the peers that those students are in classes with,” Goodman said.
The final effect could be institutions raising their tuition rates, further impacting students who aren’t provided free tuition.
“Institutions realize that they can actually get some more money from the federal government by raising their tuition. So that’s a danger I’d look out for, but I’m not super worried about it,” Goodman said.
Anushka Majumdar, a sophomore at BU studying political science, said she saw free community college as favorable and unfavorable for students.
She said how it would increase accessibility towards higher education for low-income students.
“There would be a general shift in perception of community college and it might even get rid of the stigma around it,” Majumdar said.
Her reasoning for the removal of stigma was simple since it’s hard to shame someone for opting for free education.
She also said that free community college could create adverse effects at a federal level if not implemented correctly. Majumdar said it may make access to free community college more competitive.
Delfin Ozudogru, a freshman at BU studying economics, also agreed that free community college would be a great option for those who are pursuing higher education and have a need for financial aid. She was asked if prior knowledge of free community college would have impacted her decision to apply to certain colleges.
“I want to pursue a career in law, and unfortunately law schools do look at your universities ranking while evaluating you,” Ozudogru said.
Many states have already implemented free community college programs. This has impacted some students in such opportunities to pursue higher education. Whether those impacts will impact students’ desire to apply for certain colleges is to be determined.
