BOSTON — When Gov. Maura Healey set a goal in January to grow early college enrollment tenfold, from about 10,000 students today to 100,000 by 2036, she framed it as both an economic imperative and a promise to families.
“We’re going to help our kids reach their goals and save them money,” Healey said in her televised State of the Commonwealth address. She credited partnerships with higher education for helping high school students to graduate with an associate degree in hand by earning college credits at no cost to them or their families.
Now, the machinery behind that ambition is beginning to take shape.
Education leaders, lawmakers, and college students gathered at the State House last week to sketch out what it would take to reach that scale — a conversation that blended urgency with realism about the barriers ahead. As officials pointed to growing momentum on Beacon Hill, they acknowledged that transforming early college from a promising program into a system serving roughly 40% of the state’s high schoolers will require new infrastructure, policy changes and sustained investment.
At the center of the effort are Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez and Higher Education Commissioner Noe Ortega, who said they are working jointly on a multi-year plan to meet the governor’s target.
That work is already starting to formalize. The Department of Higher Education on March 24, posted a job for the state’s first-ever full-time director of early college — a signal, Ortega said, that the state is moving from pilot programs to system-building.
But scaling up quickly presents tangible challenges, many of them structural.
“Want to look at the human capital, growing, making sure that we have enough faculty,” who are trained in teaching college-level material to high school students, Ortega said in an interview. He emphasized that this is a specific skill set.
That workforce challenge intersects with geography and logistics. As enrollment grows, officials will need to figure out where and how students take classes.
“We’re thinking about growing student bodies. So where are they going to be?” Ortega said. “Are there ways that we could build regional hubs that serve as sort of liaisons for folks that can both provide the support that I mentioned in terms of development, but also be places where people might even be able to take courses as well.”
Transportation, training and faculty wages all add cost layers to a model that, for now, is funded at a relatively modest level. Healey has proposed $15 million in her fiscal 2027 budget for early college — a figure Ortega described as enough “to kick start and continue the momentum,” but the commissioners cast as not enough to reach 100,000 students.
Martinez has begun to articulate what a scaled system might look like: a hub-and-spoke model where colleges serve as regional anchors and high schools feed students into them. With the state’s high school population projected to decline to about 250,000 by 2036, enrolling 100,000 students would mean roughly 40% of all high schoolers participating.
For both commissioners, the case for expansion goes beyond cost savings.
Martinez pointed to outcomes: early college students persist in higher education at high rates, and many outperform traditional college entrants. But he also emphasized something less quantifiable — confidence.
“What early college does is it builds the confidence for our students,” he said. “And when I say it builds the armor, it builds the skill sets.”
That “armor,” he said, is especially critical for first-generation and low-income students who may not otherwise see college as attainable.
Looking at projected demographics, Martinez said the 100,000-student goal is also about equity.
“If you’re ready for early college… you will have access to it,” he said.
Ortega framed the push as a question of who Massachusetts’ education system serves.
“Are we a leader for all or are we a leader for some?” he said. “Early college is a way to break through and ensure that we become a leader for all.”
He pointed to economic returns. Community college graduates earn about $20,000 more than high school graduates within five years, and bachelor’s degree holders about $30,000 more — gains that ripple through the state’s knowledge-based economy.
College leaders echoed that argument. Northern Essex Community College President Lane Glenn called early college “the single best investment we can be making,” tying it to workforce shortages and regional inequality.
“We’re going to be a couple 100,000 short” of needed college-educated workers by 2030, Glenn said. “We’re not going to get them from the same place we’ve always gotten them, which is importing them, and families who know how to college going to college. We’ve got to get them from other places. Gateway cities. Investment in early college is the number one way we can do that.”
State lawmakers are advancing a sweeping early college bill (H 4407) that would attempt to standardize and expand the system statewide.
The legislation would require public colleges to clearly define how they award and transfer credit for coursework completed in high school — including AP, dual enrollment, and early college classes — and make those policies transparent and consistent. It would also create a centralized office to oversee early college, establish a joint governance committee, and require high schools to offer at least one pathway for students to earn college credit or a credential.
Rep. Jeff Roy, a lead sponsor, called the proposal “a blueprint for equity and excellence.”
“It establishes a centralized College and High School Office within DESE to drive coordination and accountability. It creates a sustainable funding structure to fuel growth,” Roy said. “It ensures students earn real, transferable college credit.”
Lawmakers repeatedly described the bill as gaining traction and credited House leadership for elevating the issue. Education Chair Rep. Ken Gordon said “the speaker has empowered Rep. Dave Rogers to work on this with me,” while Rogers, who chairs the Higher Education Committee, called House Speaker Ron Mariano “an incredible champion of early college.”
But when asked later about that momentum, Mariano struck a different tone.
“I haven’t heard any momentum. I don’t know where you’re getting that,” he told the News Service, while House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz said the chamber’s next immediate focus is the state budget.
“We’ve had some members reach out about the bill… Obviously, we got the budget that we’re working through, the big budget, obviously, that we are trying to roll out at some point in April. So I think that’s kind of the priority right now,” Michlewitz said.
Even so, the policy framework in H 4407 aligns closely with what commissioners say they need: clearer credit transfer systems, stronger data collection, and coordinated governance.
Ortega said those elements are “clearly the areas that we need to make sure that we put in place in order to grow this program,” including how credits transfer and how resources are organized.
The bill itself does not include a price tag.
Asked by the News Service how they contemplate investing in the system’s expansion through the bill, and whether they’d consider using surtax funds earmarked for education, Gordon said that is up to budgetwriters.
“We look at funding of policy through a budget, so that would be up to Ways and Means to figure out the source of the funding. This is a policy bill,” Gordon said.
That separation underscores a broader reality: reaching 100,000 students will likely require significantly more than the current $15 million investment.
The early college bill has been sitting in House Ways and Means since August, when House members of the Higher Education Committee approved it 10-0.
The early college push is unfolding alongside another potentially transformative change in higher education.
The state Board of Higher Education recently approved a policy allowing colleges and universities to apply to offer three-year bachelor’s degree programs — an effort to reduce costs and accelerate completion.
Together, the two reforms could fundamentally reshape the timeline of postsecondary education.
Students who accumulate substantial college credits in high school through early college could enter college as sophomores — or further along — and then complete a degree on an accelerated three-year track. The combined effect could significantly reduce both the time and cost required to earn a degree.
For now, officials say the immediate goal is to translate ambition into a concrete plan.
Martinez said he wants that roadmap within a year — along with clearly defined roles across K-12 schools, colleges, and state agencies.
Asked about what he’d like to be celebrating a year from now, Martinez said: “Having a clear plan of how we’re going to get to 100,000.”