Thursday, 4:30 PM
Middle-class families may have access to grants for poor
By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff
State higher education officials proposed Wednesday to give middle-class families, strapped by rising college costs, access to state grants that now go to only the poorest families.
Also, all students could qualify for free tuition and fees for two years of community college, provided they took college preparatory courses in high school and qualified for nonremedial college coursework.
The more than $200 million overhaul of the state’s college financial aid system, which a task force is expected to present Thursday to the state Board of Higher Education, would require approval by the board and the Legislature.
Under the new proposal, families with incomes of $70,000 or less would qualify for the need-based MASSGrant, with additional factors, like family size and number of college students in a family, determining how much grant money would go to which students. The grants can be used for public or private colleges in the state or in the other five New England states, Pennsylvania, or Washington, D.C., with which Massachusetts has reciprocal agreements allowing out-of-state students to use their state aid in the other state.
Board officials said that an estimated 20,000 students, those with family incomes between $36,000 and $70,000, could be expected to benefit from the proposed change.
Chancellor Patricia F. Plummer said the new proposal is part of an effort to keep the middle class living in Massachusetts, where the cost of living can prove too much for residents who also carry heavy debt from college.
‘‘This is about the economy of Massachusetts,’’ Plummer said. ‘‘The debt burdens that students are taking on only make living here that much more difficult. We want to try to keep young people here in Massachusetts.’’
