Eligible Massachusetts students, regardless of their immigration status, would qualify for in-state tuition rates at public colleges or universities under a plan floated by Senate leaders Tuesday morning.
To qualify, students would need to have attended a local high school for at least three years and graduated or obtained a GED in the state. It is a measure Senate officials say will increase immigrants’ access to higher education and put Massachusetts in line with 23 other states and the District of Columbia.
“We have so many jobs being unfulfilled. We need a trained, educated, qualified workforce,” Senate President Karen Spilka told reporters. “We are falling behind other states, including the red states, in offering what is not only the right thing for these immigrant students, but good for our atmosphere of inclusion, equity, and overall success.”
The Senate included the measure as part of a $55.8 billion fiscal 2024 budget proposal they released Tuesday. The state budget Senate leaders put forward also eyes a change to the once-obscure tax cap law known as Chapter 62F and shuttles hundreds of millions towards education and transportation initiatives.
The push to allow undocumented students to access higher education comes as top Senate officials say higher education enrollment is declining and workforce challenges are being felt across the state.
The policy would remove “an outdated barrier to opportunity,” Senate officials said in a document outlining the measure.
Spilka said the proposed legislation would also allow undocumented students to access state financial aid, something that Texas, Utah, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey already do.
“In Massachusetts, undocumented immigrants contribute about $184 million per year in state and local taxes,” Senate leaders said. “Boosting access to higher education can improve a person’s earning potential, which would increase tax contributions.”
Salem State University President John Keenan said the new policy would increase access for students “who have long called Massachusetts home, regardless of their immigration status.”
“These members of our community have a lot to offer, and the entire commonwealth will benefit from putting a higher education within greater reach,” Keenan said in a statement.
Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues said the chamber has not voted on this idea before and “there’s really no cost to this.”
“The reports I’ve seen, it’s actually income generating,” he told reporters. “We know that enrollment at our community colleges have declined precipitously. Especially since the pandemic, enrollments in all higher ed has declined. So this will provide increased enrollment at our higher education institutions.”
Rodrigues did not have an estimate as to how many people would be served if the proposed change went into effect.
“Schools would see a net gain in revenue because more students would attend with in-state tuition rates,” he said. “Twenty-three other states provide this for their residents and it’s been successful in those states.”