Copyright MassLive
Days before classes started, community college leaders and students learned that the state was quietly reducing its need-based stipends for students. The news, first reported by MassLive, was a shock to many, only a year after the state instituted free community college. However, on Thursday, the Massachusetts Senate approved its closeout supplemental budget that would pour money back into community colleges. While the proposed funding doesn’t cement its inclusion in the final budget signed by Governor Maura Healey, it provides a glimmer of hope for what could come to community college advocates and leaders. “We are thrilled that the Senate has recognized that every dollar a community college student receives is essential. By providing the necessary funding to backfill the cuts to the book and supply allowances, our students will have one less thing to be concerned about come [the] spring semester. We are incredibly grateful to the Senate President and hope to see this funding in the final version of the supplemental budget,” Nate Mackinnon, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, said in a statement. The fund, called the Public Higher Education Student Support Fund, would ensure that the book and supplies stipend “remains fully funded as the Senate reaffirms its commitment to universal higher education,” according to a Thursday press release. Read more: Leaders sound alarm on cuts to new Mass. free community college program While tuition and fees will still be covered despite the August funding cuts, without more funding, there will be a reduction of need-based stipends next semester for the most economically disadvantaged students, including for books, supplies and cost of living, by a couple of hundred dollars each. In addition, a grant award through MassGrant is being reduced by $200 for those attending four-year institutions, and completion and emergency grants are being eliminated for those attending public institutions. Other grant awards, such as completion and emergency grants, are being eliminated for students attending public institutions, according to Bahar Akman Imboden, managing director and founding member of Boston-based education think tank Hildreth Institute. The reduction in stipend funding is because free community college allocations have been “flatlined” in the state budget compared to the previous year, despite increasing enrollment, Akman Imboden previously told MassLive. The state confirmed that due to increasing enrollment, the Department of Higher Education needed to reduce book and supply allotments to prioritize covering tuition and fees and ensure state financial aid stays within budgetary limits. It’s a troubling “equity implication,” wherein the financially neediest students are the ones who are being impacted the most, while the state is covering tuition and fees for students who could otherwise afford it, Akman Imboden said. “I’m not suggesting that aid should be cut from anyone, but these programs were designed to expand opportunity, and we should not let the success of the program [get] the lowest income students penalized by that,” she said. The cuts to stipends also raised concerns about what they could signal, such as a progressive decline in state spending on the program and whether it could upend recent upward enrollment trends. “Now more than ever, every dollar matters to our students’ ability to continue in their studies, and we appreciate the Senate President’s responsiveness to this issue,” William Heineman, President, North Shore Community College; Chair, Community College Council of Presidents, said in a statement.
