Michael Horn argues Massachusetts' free community college law ignores a critical problem: some programs have negative returns on investment. He points to Texas State Technical College, which ties funding to student and taxpayer outcomes, as a better model than simply making tuition free.
Massachusetts is now a couple years into its experiment in rolling back the clock on college policy, and it's not a good thing. Nationwide, people are focused on making sure that college actually returns value to students and taxpayers. They're looking at the return on investment. But Massachusetts has been focusing on free community college through its Mass Educate law, I argue in my latest piece at Forbes. And that's a mistake. While enrollments are soaring, people are questioning, is this really going to be good for students in all cases? And with certain programs at certain community colleges having huge negative ROIs, it's anything but clear. Texas actually has a much better model in the Texas State Technical College, where it's really focused on value for students and taxpayers, and the funding formula for the college is 100% focused on that. Massachusetts should take note.
