On Wednesday, January 25th, MassINC, uAspire, One Goal, Bottom Line, and The Education Trust hosted a forum on the future of public higher education finance in Massachusetts.

The hybrid event brought together more than 200 education practitioners, policymakers, and leaders for a timely dialogue on how Massachusetts deploys Question One funding to increase college access and success.

The Education Trust’s Chanthy Lopes Toro opened the program with a summary of the troubling trends and the opportunity before us to make college affordable once again. EY-Parthenon’s Sam Wolfson presented findings from a recent review of public higher education spending and financial aid, revealing Massachusetts’ lagging position among the states. Chairman Chris Gabrieli outlined the investments that the Board of Higher Education recently proposed to remedy this problem. We then heard real-life examples of how financial challenges create barriers to opportunity in a conversation with students and practitioners led by Amanda Seider, Executive Director of OneGoal.

Commissioner of Higher Education Noe Ortega described the urgent need to tackle these issues in a discussion with MassINC’s research director, Ben Forman.

You can view the event recording here and click here to download the slides presented by Chris Gabrieli and Sam Wolfson.