The movement towards free public college received another boost on Tuesday when Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) and Boston’s Mayor Martin Walsh (D) unveiled a state- and city-sponsored pilot program to provide free community college to working class families.
According to The Boston Globe, the program will pay for all the tuition and fees not covered by Pell Grants, scholarships, and other federal grants to all graduates of the city’s public and parochial schools, starting with this year’s graduates. Households that made $50,000 or less usually are the ones to qualify.
In other words, a very small limited pool of people given the list of income and federal grant requirements.
The program is not as open as other models like the very restricted one Gov. Cuomo (D) opened in New York or the more inclusive one Gov. Haslam (R) created in Tennessee. Students must go to either Bunker Hill Community College, Roxbury Community College, or MassBay Community College — and graduate in 2-and-a-half years.
Boston’s new program is an offshoot of an already current program which paid the existing tuition costs for 50 students in 2016 who attended three different community colleges.
Some critics are charging that Baker, like Cuomo in New York, is creating the plan to create positive reviews in an election year without having to actually help most students who struggle with heavy financial loans.
Baker doesn’t seem to need the boost, according to a Morning Consult poll released in April the Bay State Governor has a 75 percent approval rating — the highest in the nation.
