In funding formula, don’t scrimp on community colleges
By Patricia A. Gentile. Derrick Z. Jackson got it half right — Massachusetts is not a two-tiered public higher education state (“Pricing out state university students”). It has three tiers, and they include community colleges, where the most at-risk, lowest-income, greatest-minority students receive the least amount of public support and shoulder the highest percentage of financial burden to pursue their dreams. The 15 Massachusetts community colleges enroll 57 percent of the total undergraduates in public higher education, more than UMass and state colleges and universities combined. Yet our sector only receives 25 percent of the total higher-education pie. UMass student support is three times higher per student, with public colleges and universities two times higher. More...