Statement on the Final FY26 Supplemental Budget

Last week, Governor Healey signed into law H.5470, a fiscal year (FY) 2026 supplemental budget that utilizes Fair Share surtax funds for higher education programs, among other things. The higher education line items provide:

• $18.3m for student financial aid 

• $20 million for the Endowment Match program, broken down as follows:

  • $10 million for the University of Massachusetts

  • $5 million for State Universities

  • $5 million for Community Colleges

• $15m for Targeted Scholarships

• $10.1m for the Tomorrow’s Educators Program

• $10m for a Family Medicine Scholarship Program at UMass Medical School

The budget makes important investments in student financial aid, most notably the $18.3 million in flexible funding to help address potential shortfalls this coming school year. However, we remain concerned that these investments will not keep pace with rising enrollment combined with the expiration of federal COVID-19 relief funds in both the short and long term.

We hope that the Legislature will soon turn to funding our student aid programs in a more sustainable manner by investing significantly in the Public Higher Education Student Support Fund. This rainy day reserve of funding would help the Commonwealth uphold our commitments to college affordability and provide essential stability to our students and institutions.