Higher Education

$580 Million.
That's how much the state is underfunding the Commonwealth's public colleges and universities.

So many Massachusetts families rely on our public colleges and universities, yet we continue to drastically underfund them.

The facts speak for themselves:

• The state is underfunding public colleges and universities by more than $500 million a year.
• Student debt has skyrocketed.
• Too many full-time faculty have been replaced by poorly paid adjuncts, and staff have been asked to do more with less. Vital student and support services have been decimated.

Public higher ed deserves a foundation budget that guarantees students a high-quality, debt-free education.

The Fund Our Future coalition is advocating for passage of the Cherish Act during this legislative session.

UNDERFUNDING OF OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

This map show how much the appropriation for each public higher education campus might increase under the Cherish Act (H1214/S741), which would restore appropriations to the level reached in FY 2001.

Methodology behind Higher Ed Funding

Since their FY01 high point, inflation-adjusted, per-pupil state higher education appropriations have declined by 31 percent. The Cherish Act (H1214/S741) would restore appropriations to the FY01 level while freezing tuition and fees, resulting in an appropriations increase of $580 million over the FY19 General Appropriations Act amount if the act were fully implemented in FY20. The map below shows how much the appropriation for each higher education campus might increase.

The act does not specify how the additional $580 million would be distributed. The data on the map are based on a particular approach to allocating the funds. There is no way of predicting the actual approach that the Legislature would adopt. Therefore, as with the Chapter 70 data, these numbers should not be taken as any kind of a guarantee. They also supersede the numbers that were formerly posted on this site, which were based on data that have since been updated.