Charlie Baker, Deval Patrick, and Mitt Romney certainly have their differences, but extolling the virtues of public education in Massachusetts is not one of them. Understandably, each took great pride during their administrations in sharing with constituents, potential businesses, and the nation that “We’re #1!” in education. After all, US News & World Report says so. In 2018, the magazine ranked the Commonwealth first among the fifty states and we have been at the top, or near top, of their ranking for years.
It ain’t true. Massachusetts, we are not number one in education.
This celebrated position is driven by k-12 metrics. When averaged, college readiness (#2), high school graduation rates (#13), math (#1 ) and reading scores (#2), pre-k quality (#24), and pre-school enrollment (#4) rankings place Massachusetts at the top of the pack in primary/secondary education. Impressive.
Higher education is a far different story.
US News and World Report locates Massachusetts amongst the bottom half of states – 29th – when it comes to higher education. This is generous. The relatively large proportion of residents over 25 who earned a bachelor’s degree “save” Massachusetts from an even more embarrassing placement. While we are first in the nation for bachelor’s degrees, metrics that better reflect policy decisions made within the state do not stack up so well. In particular, Massachusetts ranks an abhorrent 44th in terms of the amount of debt one accrues upon graduation and a dismal 43rd in terms of tuition and fees. This expenses are not driven by the pricey private schools that many equate with Massachusetts. Rather, as US News and World report explains, theirs is a measure of the average college tuition and fees required of in-state students at public four-year institutions. Yes, cost of living is high in Massachusetts but similarly expensive states like New York (#17) and California (#4) make policy choices to be more affordable for residents.
Woeful rankings should shame a state that so prides itself in the top k-12 spot. But shame is not what led me to write this piece. Rather, in the last week, two events helped crystallize the disjuncture between Massachusetts’ self-conception on education and the realities of higher education in our state.
The first is the release of a report by the WisconsinHOPE Lab which documents that 1/3 of Massachusetts public university students are food insecure and 2/5 of Massachusetts community college students are similarly burdened. That high cost of tuition? All those fees? It is leading to literal hunger amongst substantial minorities of Massachusetts students. Yes, Harvard, MIT, and the gang are in Massachusetts but MA residents make up small minorities of the student body at these elite private schools. The actual schools we fund, the ones we disproportionately send ourselves and Massachusetts young people to (and the not so young), are so expensive that between 33% and 40% of the average class is unsure where their next meal will come. All those bachelor’s degrees in MA are certainly nice but what about all the food insecure students? I know they are not featured in “State of the Commonwealth” speeches.
The second issue that has me pondering public higher education in Massachusetts is on my own campus, UMass Boston (UMB). You may have read about us… First, I must share how I have never been more proud to work anywhere. Our students work two, three jobs to pay for school. Many have had bumps and winding paths to UMB. I am deeply inspired by them. We are majority-minority and what happens on that campus is regularly transformative. The faculty and staff are wildly talented and dedicated, and I mean dedicated, to our urban mission. And the state and UMass system has largely forsaken us. Pick up the Globe for more on that. But, for now, let me share with you the parking rates that go into effect for students as of January 16th. For new students, at the Commonwealth’s almost exclusively commuter campus, rates will be between $504 and $550 dollars per semester. On-campus day rate? $15. That is on top of tuition and fees already near the highest in the nation for public universities. Not funding public higher ed pushes exorbitant fees onto the most vulnerable. In this case, students living, and mostly residing, in Massachusetts. Ironically, and tragically, it is precisely these students who are most apt to stay in Massachusetts. As MassBudget reports, 60 percent of graduates of Massachusetts public colleges in 2008 were working in Massachusetts four years later (2012). Only 38 percent of private graduates in 2008 remained in-state in 2012.
Massachusetts as public higher education laggard is a new phenomenon. In 2004, MA had the second lowest debt level but, by 2016, we skyrocketed to the 10th highest (charts 15 & 16). This jump eclipses all but one state (chart 17). So, er, “we’re #2?!” The same MassBudget report details how MA cut both higher education and per student funding every year since 2001 (14% and 32% drops, respectively). Tuition and fees, on the other hand, have gone up 109% in the same time period.
So, fellow Bay Staters, we just are not the crème de la crème when higher ed is in the fore.
This hurts us all. The majority of residents who graduate from a MA high school 
and attend college do so in Massachusetts. We saddle them with debt that forces decisions between food and tuition for many. It’s both morally wrong and fiscally short-sighted. After all, the more educated the populace, the better the state economy and average wage rates.
Like many, I am proud of the #1 ranking for k-12. But it should not obscure how Massachusetts increasingly shortchanges public higher education. I want to put on that “We’re #1” foam finger. And I want to do so at the Massachusetts institution of public higher education I am fortunate enough to make my career.
Massachusetts, our students deserve to be #1 in higher ed too.