Her story of triumph
Jill Hrubes missed the televised debate in Springfield last night among the four candidates for governor of Massachusetts. The Amesbury mother of three was on a stage half a state away, being applauded in a Boston ballroom for embodying the kind of hope and possibility that political candidates like to celebrate on the campaign trail.
Her story speaks volumes about the role state government does and does not play in bettering the lives of ordinary people.
Hrubes was a cafeteria worker, the mother of three young sons, when she and a friend first heard about a program at Northern Essex Community College for women who want to return to school. Struggling to leave an abusive marriage and lacking self-confidence, she went to the Haverhill campus three times before she got the nerve to sign up for a course.
``I really thought I was too stupid," she said yesterday, hours before accepting a scholarship from the ROSE Fund, a national nonprofit group dedicated to assisting victims of domestic violence. (The initials stand for Regaining One's Self Esteem.)
The money will help the 48-year-old college junior complete her bachelor of arts degree at Simmons College, where she enrolled this fall.
``I would not be here if it wasn't for community college," she said. ``I plugged away one class at a time." Her experience reflects that of most students at the state's 15 community colleges who are balancing jobs, school, and parenthood. ``So many people there helped me. Classes are geared toward nights and weekends, when real people can actually get there. I wish I had two hours to tell the candidates what that means and what more they could be doing to help working people get an education."
The competitors for the corner office have pledged their support for public higher education in the Commonwealth, but those promises echo the pledges of too many prior campaigns.
Massachusetts, never much of a champion of its state college and university system, now ranks 47th in the nation in per capita funding of public higher education.
The state budget this year includes a 6.9 percent increase from last year, but that bump comes after years of devastating cuts that have affected everything from building maintenance to scholarships. State spending on scholarships dropped from $105 million in fiscal 2000 to $82 million last year.
Were it not for such private, philanthropic groups as the ROSE Fund, needy and deserving students would not make it through four years of college in Massachusetts.
``I go back to Northern Essex to speak to women who are thinking about going back to school, to tell them that if I could do it, as a single parent with a full-time job, they can do it, too," Hrubes said. ``I don't tell them it is easy, because it's not. Transportation is a problem for some people. Day care can be, too."
The balancing act does not work for everyone. That is why just 16.4 percent of the state's full-time community college students earn a degree or certificate in three years, compared with a national average of 24.7 percent.
Jill Hrubes is one of the success stories. She is working on a degree in women's studies and social justice, with an eye toward law school.
Despite the commute to Simmons from Amesbury and the demands of three growing boys, ages 15, 13, and 6, she serves on the board of directors of Greater Haverhill Community Action and volunteers at programs to combat domestic violence, homelessness, and hunger.
In her free time, she teaches Sunday school at her church.
``The most important lesson I can teach my sons is to be involved in your community," she said. ``It is only through helping others that we can make this world a better place."
That is not a bad lesson for Kerry Healey, Deval Patrick, Christy Mihos, and Grace Ross, either.
Eileen McNamara is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at mcnamara@globe.com. 
