Massachusetts Gives All Residents Tuition-Free Community College
Credit: Image Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor / Getty Images- Gov. Maura Healey signed the $58 billion state budget July 29.
- The budget establishes the MassEducate free-tuition program for all state residents, including undocumented students.
- Massachusetts is also the only state to offer a free nursing school education across a whole college system.
Every Massachusetts resident now has access to free community college.
Gov. Maura Healey signed the $57.78 billion 2025 state budget July 29, 10 days after the House and Senate settled differences. The budget establishes MassEducate, which will begin in fall 2024. It makes tuition- and fees-free community college available to every resident, regardless of a student’s family income.
Massachusetts is the leader in innovation and education, the best place to raise your family or grow a business. But we also face challenges, so we aren’t resting — we’re going on offense,
Healey said. This budget delivers on our shared priorities and drives our state forward with urgency and purpose.
The state already hosts a similar last-dollar tuition-free program called MassReconnect, however it’s only available to students 25 and older. On the city-level, Boston offers a free community college program covering all of a student’s balance after financial aid is applied. It also provides a $250 stipend each semester for up to three years to students at the city’s community colleges.
The program expands MassGrant Plus, a tuition-free program for Pell Grant-eligible and middle-income students, including undocumented students who earned a high school degree or equivalent.
The main differences between MassEducate and MassGrant Plus are who qualifies and eligible schools:
- Every Massachusetts resident qualifies for the MassEducate program at all community colleges.
- Only Pell Grant-eligible and middle-income students qualify for various amounts of tuition, fees, and federal expected family contribution (EFC) covered by the MassGrant Plus program.
Massachusetts isn’t the only state expanding free community college. On July 23, Michigan’s 2025 state budget was signed, establishing the Community College Guarantee for all of the state’s high school graduates.
Michigan students with higher financial need will also receive $1,000 for food, housing, transportation, and childcare costs. The state will also continue to support the Michigan Reconnect free tuition program for residents 21 and up.
Alongside free community college tuition, Massachusetts is creating access to a free nursing education at state community colleges.
Massachusetts is now the only state to offer free nursing school across a whole college system through scholarships. Other schools offering free nursing school are the University Rochester in New York, the University of Pennsylvania, Chamberlain University in New Orleans, and a few others.
With historic investments in free community college, early education and care, and regional equity, Massachusetts has the tools it needs to provide hope and opportunity to each of our residents,
state Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Ashland said.
This budget is a vote of confidence in every Massachusetts resident going to school, raising a family, and working to make ends meet — as well as a blueprint for bringing equity and opportunity to every region and resident of our state.