In Massachusetts, Harvard was there first.
For years, the state relied on it and other private colleges to educate the state's population. So much so that former Governor Michael Dukakis once said, "We aren't California.... And I don't think it makes sense for us to duplicate that" state's expansive public college systems, thanks to all the private colleges in Massachusetts
Now, state higher education officials are trying to change that – and want to do so by spending about as much per student as California, which has perhaps the nation's top public higher ed system.
In some ways, Massachusetts may have to change and boost its public system. Forty years ago, state public colleges educated only 30 percent of Massachusetts' undergraduates. Now, just over half of the state's undergraduates attend a public.
As privates focus more than ever before on out-of-state and international students and more in-state students are coming to rely on the public colleges, the state’s higher education system is trying to improve its performance and its image.
Even though Massachusetts is an education mecca – Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Amherst College, Wellesley College, and the list goes on – the public system there isn’t seen that way.
Instead "public higher education doesn't have a great reputation among people and families" in Massachusetts, said Richard Freeland, the state Commissioner of Higher Education.
"We have to convince Massachusetts that excellence in higher education is critical to the well-being of the state," he said.
Freeland hopes to change that. On Tuesday, with the backing of business leaders and a nod from state lawmakers, Freeland's commission began a campaign to get an additional $685 million over the next five years. Most of that, about $475 million, would go directly to institutions. Another $210 million would go to student financial aid.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/29/massachusetts-higher-ed-officials-want-half-billion-dollars-and-better-respect