The enthusiasm for free community college expressed by students and others in Hilary Burns’ story on MassEducate points to two things: The Fair Share Amendment enables strategic investments in our communities, and Massachusetts is committed to debt-free public higher education (“Free community college for all is a huge relief for students,” page A1, August 9).
The Massachusetts Teachers Association has long advocated for debt-free public higher education because it has been proven that investing public money in public higher education leads to better economic and social outcomes than other types of investments.
The $117 million earmarked for tuition-free community colleges came from revenue from the Fair Share Amendment. With our state’s top earners paying an additional 4 percent tax on incomes over $1 million, students who may have struggled to stay in school or not even attempted to pursue higher education because of the cost may now feel relief.
Opening the doors to community colleges is a start, but ultimately we need tuition-free access to state universities and the University of Massachusetts without compromising the quality of public higher education.
Good governance is about providing opportunities to thousands of citizens to improve their quality of life and thus strengthen their community.
Max Page
president
Massachusetts Teachers Association
Quincy
The author is on leave from UMass Amherst, where he has been a professor of architecture since 2001.
