Boston will make a $4 million funding into permitting any Boston resident to attend one in all six group schools tuition free, metropolis officers introduced on the Massachusetts College of Art and Design on Thursday morning.
“Expanding Boston’s Tuition Free Community College is a critical step in ensuring more of our city’s residents are eligible to pursue a higher education right here in the city,” Mayor Michelle Wu stated. “This funding will increase community college enrollment and connect more residents with quality jobs.”
Previously restricted to income-eligible recipients, a metropolis launch acknowledged, the funding will enable this system to cowl prices for all Boston residents to enroll in as much as three years at a accomplice school. The funds are break up between $3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and $1 million by the Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s Community Project Funding.
Eligible faculties embrace Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology, Bunker Hill Community College, Massasoit Community College, MassBay Community College, Roxbury Community College and Urban College of Boston.
TFCC has lined prices for over 1,000 college students since 2016, in line with the town.
The enlargement “aims to address the pandemic’s impact on community college enrollment, completion rates and eliminate barriers to re-enrollment for aspiring students,” the discharge stated.
The enlargement will enable for college students of any age or immigration standing to make use of this system and makes participation automated for Boston-residents who enroll within the eligible schools.
The enlargement permits college students to make use of the funding to work on the schools in direction of industry-recognized certification, that are “often not covered by federal financial aid,” officers famous. The credentials applications embrace fields like healthcare and data expertise.
Residents can also obtain as much as $2,500 in debt reduction to the accomplice faculties “if the balance prevents them from re-enrolling,” the town stated.
The funding feeds into a bigger initiative to spice up larger training pathways, together with a number of new Early College and Innovation Pathway applications permitting BPS college students to work in direction of larger training levels and technical certificates whereas in highschool.
BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper referred to as the TFCC funding a “vital milestone.”
“By removing a financial barrier, this investment adds another option for our students to access a postsecondary opportunity immediately following high school graduation and increase our overall college-going rates,” Skipper stated.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”