These students are tomorrow’s nurses, engineers, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Driving them from classrooms is a moral failure, but also an economic one: It makes the next generation smaller, less educated, and less able to compete in a global economy that depends on talent and drive. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.Â
Robert Hildreth
Robert Hildreth is founder and president of Hildreth Institute, a non-profit organization based in Boston that aims to increase awareness among students, families, and higher education institutions about the student debt crisis.
Posted inOpinion
Free College only pays off if students know about it
As any good politician will tell you, you have to get in face of your prospects everyday. Lack of information is a big reason low-income students fail to sign up for financial aid. A unified webpage can tell the full story. It is where advertising must bring people.
Posted inOpinion
Restore the endowment match for community colleges
The budget has never been more generous to these colleges in terms of providing MassEducate, the free community college plan. But cutting this low-cost, high-impact match program is unnecessary and counterproductive.
Posted inOpinion
Searching for college funding with a simple click
The system’s opaqueness presents obstacles, particularly for low-income students who can be unaware of the significant financial aid available to them. Other states and even regions within Massachusetts have successfully implemented technological solutions to offer students a transparent and user-friendly portal to access this critical information. It’s time for our state to follow suit.
Posted inOpinion
Transfers between state colleges should be automatic
In a groundbreaking initiative, Bunker Hill Community College and UMass Lowell have collaborated to create a program allowing Bunker Hill students to opt into simultaneous admission to UMass Lowell upon their graduation from Bunker Hill.
Posted inOpinion
Follow New York’s lead on matching university gifts
A correction has been added to this story. STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY, part of the New York higher education system, just got some joyous news, in fact half a billion dollars […]
Posted inEducation
Student loan ombudsperson is working, let’s fund it
IN TODAY’S UNPREDICTABLE economy, the future of nearly 1 million student loan borrowers in Massachusetts is particularly precarious. Combined, they owe a whopping $31.7 billion in student loans. Their fate […]
Posted inOpinion
Dealing with the fallout of sudden college closures
IN 2018, I helped finance a class action lawsuit by a group of former Mount Ida College students who were effectively kicked out of school as a result of the […]
Posted inImmigration, Opinion, Politics
For safety and fairness, vote yes on Question 4Â
OPPONENTS OF DRIVER’S licenses for undocumented immigrants are hammering one message – fear. Yet, every day we all drive safely next to undocumented workers who legally travel to Massachusetts from […]
Posted inEducation
It’s time to revamp the student loan system
WHEN IT COMES to student loans, President Biden is acting like Lucy removing the football just as naïve Charlie Brown is persuaded to kick it. Every time the president sets […]
Posted inOpinion
Hey, college presidents, speak up!
COLLEGE PRESIDENTS HAVE long used the bully pulpit that comes with their office to shape public opinion. That is, until now. Today, college leaders remain silent, having turned their sights […]