On a crisp September evening in Easton, Massachusetts, the local School Committee gathered for its September 18, 2025, meeting—unaware that their discussions would soon echo a broader, statewide conversation about the changing landscape of educational access and affordability. As the committee tackled student registration updates and community engagement initiatives, another story was unfolding across the Commonwealth: a dramatic expansion of tuition-free college programs, aiming to make higher education a reality for thousands more families.
Assistant Superintendent Pruitt, addressing the Easton School Committee, announced a significant change for district families: student registration would return to individual schools, with residency checks remaining centralized at the administration office. According to committee minutes, this adjustment was welcomed by school staff, who saw it as a way to streamline an often cumbersome process. Pruitt stressed the importance of keeping staff up to date with evolving residency laws—an essential safeguard to ensure compliance and support for local families navigating the system.
But while Easton educators focused on the nuts and bolts of K-12 administration, a parallel revolution was gaining steam in higher education. As reported by MassLive on September 21, 2025, more than 30 Massachusetts colleges and universities—both public and private—have rolled out tuition-free admission programs for students meeting specific income and eligibility requirements. The list reads like a who’s who of prestigious institutions: Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, and Tufts University, among others.
At Harvard, for example, families earning up to $200,000 annually may qualify for free tuition, and those with incomes below $100,000 can receive full coverage for tuition, housing, food, health insurance, and even travel costs. Students also receive a $2,000 start-up grant in their first year and another $2,000 launch grant as juniors—helping to ease the transition both into and out of college. MIT offers a similar suite of benefits for households earning less than $100,000, covering not just tuition but also housing, dining, fees, and an allowance for books and personal expenses.
Other private colleges have joined the movement, adjusting their income thresholds and eligibility criteria. Mount Holyoke and Tufts provide tuition-free admission for families making up to $150,000, while the College of the Holy Cross and Lasell University extend this benefit to those earning $100,000 or less. Brandeis University, meanwhile, offers grants and scholarships covering 50 percent of tuition for students from households earning under $200,000. Some colleges, like Regis College and Anna Maria College, focus on Pell-eligible students or graduates from specific types of high schools, further expanding the net for potential beneficiaries.
Public institutions in Massachusetts are also stepping up. All 15 community colleges now waive tuition and fees for residents who have lived in the state for at least a year, provided they meet other criteria. Bridgewater State University covers tuition and mandatory fees for in-state students from households earning $125,000 or less. The UMass undergraduate system, Salem State University, MassArt, and Worcester State University all offer free tuition and fee support for in-state undergraduates whose families earn $75,000 or less, with Worcester State also providing emergency funds for students facing unexpected expenses that could derail their academic progress.
Some of these tuition-free programs won’t kick in until fall 2026, but the trend is clear: Massachusetts is racing to make college more accessible, both in response to competition among institutions and the state’s new free community college initiative. As Louisa Woodhouse, senior associate of policy and advocacy at the National College Attainment Network, told MassLive, "Tuition will absolutely make progress. But we also need continued investment from the state and the federal level and institutions to ensure that students are receiving all of the financial support that they need."
Despite the flurry of tuition-free announcements, the issue of college affordability remains complex. The sticker price at some selective institutions is now approaching—or even surpassing—$100,000 per year, depending on how costs are calculated. And while tuition waivers are a crucial first step, advocates say that true affordability requires addressing the full cost of attendance, including room, board, books, and those unpredictable emergency expenses that can knock students off course.
The National College Attainment Network’s recent report drives home this point, finding that between 2022 and 2023, only 54 percent of the 26 Massachusetts colleges and universities they sampled (12 four-year public institutions and 14 two-year public institutions) were considered affordable. The organization’s affordability metrics factored in not just tuition, but also total price for in-state students living on campus (or off-campus for two-year degrees), emergency expenses, grant aid, average federal student loans, work-study opportunities, expected family contribution, and potential summer wages.
Massachusetts ranked 15th nationally in the percentage of affordable institutions and 11th in the number of affordable institutions for the 2022-23 academic year. The report noted that four-year state institutions in Massachusetts lagged behind their peers in other states, while two-year schools were disproportionately more affordable—even before the launch of the state’s free community college program in 2024.
Meanwhile, the Department of Higher Education has quietly reduced its need-based stipends for books and other expenses for state students, raising concerns among advocates. Woodhouse emphasized, "Making education accessible to students, and particularly to low and moderate-income students who are facing these barriers when it comes to the cost of attendance, has a benefit for everyone involved. Everyone wins, frankly."
Back in Easton, the School Committee’s focus on community engagement and parental involvement echoed the broader themes of access and support. Committee members shared stories from recent events, such as the Easton Tricentennial block party and back-to-school nights, underscoring the importance of cultivating a strong school-community partnership. The committee also previewed an upcoming Title I intervention night on October 23 at Easton Middle School, designed to connect families from Richardson Olmstead and Easton Middle School with intervention resources and programs. As part of ongoing efforts to keep parents informed, MCAS data reports are expected to be released by the end of September, with a new online portal set to give families direct access to their children’s academic performance data.
As the Easton School Committee prepared to enter executive session to discuss confidential personnel strategies, it was clear that education leaders at every level—from local school boards to the state’s most prestigious universities—are grappling with the same fundamental challenge: how to ensure that every student, regardless of background or income, has a fair shot at academic success. With new tuition-free programs and a renewed emphasis on support services, Massachusetts may be inching closer to that goal, but as advocates and educators alike acknowledge, the journey is far from over.
For families in Easton and across the state, the coming months will bring new opportunities—and new questions—about what true educational access really means in 2025 and beyond.
