Gov. Charlie Baker’s budget proposal takes steps that are “crucially important” to efforts around building equity and closing achievement gaps in colleges and universities, according the state’s higher education commissioner.
Meanwhile, a coalition of education groups and teachers unions is pushing for the passage of legislation calling for $500 million in new funding for public colleges and universities.
Higher Education Commissioner Carlos Santiago said Massachusetts leads the pack educationally in a number of ways — for one, boasting the highest percentage of its population with postsecondary degrees — but also faces “startling” gaps.
A white female student’s likelihood of completing a college degree is around 65 percent, he said, but for a Latino male student, that falls to about 20 percent, Santiago said at an event hosted by the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy.
Read the full article on the Lowell Sun website.