Mark Leading Investigation Into Student Loans, Debt

State Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, had been named chairman of a joint subcommittee looking into ways to reduce the burden of educational loans on graduates.

DALTON, Mass. — Colleges across the state are sending graduates off with hard-earned degrees — and mountains of debt.

Nearly $1 trillion in student loans are outstanding nationwide and those graduating from Massachusetts colleges carry an average of $27,000 in student loan debt.

State Rep. Paul Mark is leading an investigation into ways to reduce that burden.

The Peru Democrat was chosen to chair a five-member joint subcommittee that will spend nearly a year looking at the causes behind rising student debt and ways to diminish it.

"The purpose is to find out if there is something to be done on the state level to alleviate the growing problem," Mark said during an interview Friday morning.

In the end, Mark hopes the subcommittee will come up with bills to reel in those escalating costs or, at least, file a report outlining the challenges for future considerations.

"I want to make it an intensive look into the issue," Mark said. "I think it is a very important issue and I think it is an honor that they chose me to chair this."

The subcommittee was formed by the House Committee on Higher Education, of which Mark is vice chairman. The subcommittee will be his first chairmanship and he will be holding hearings in all regions of the state this fall.

Mark knows the issues firsthand, which is part of the reason he was chosen to lead the investigation. He and his wife pay more than $700 a month for their combined student loans. That "could be a mortgage," Mark said.

At least two-thirds of graduates carry student loans, often until well into their 30s and beyond, according to the nonprofit American Student Assistance.

Early in his career, Mark withdrew from college because it was too expensive. He later returned and worked full time while he earned his bachelor's and eventually a master's and a law degree.

But the costs have only risen since Mark was last in school and now students are becoming bogged down with the loan payments.

"If someone has the desire and the talent, we want them to have the opportunity to go to college," Mark said. "We don't want cost to be the deciding factor."

The amount of debt students and their families take on varies wildly depending on the school, the student's financial resources and the availability of scholarships. According to Project Student Debt, the average debt at private Williams College was $8,801 in 2011, in part because of the college's strong commitment to needs-based scholarships.

But for colleges (private or otherwise) that don't have deep pockets to draw from, the costs require students to borrow. The average debt for Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts graduates in 2011 was nearly $30,000 — not far off from other Massachusetts public colleges, according to Project Student Debt.

At the federal level, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pushing a bill to reduce student loan interest rates, which she says are set to double on July 1.

The committee will be looking into colleges' budgets, how students loans are crafted and how interest rates are derived — asking if they are fair. Mark also wants to know how the various options are presented to prospective students among the many aspects of the issue.

"There are a lot of different issues to look at," Mark said. "As we begin the process it is going to open a lot of other ideas and lead us in other directions."

He used the examples of physicians not moving to and working in the Berkshires because of pay and high schools not attracting the best teachers. Reducing the debt burden will allow the graduates to have more control over their careers, he said.

"People are moving back in with their parents because they can't afford a house on their own. People are taking jobs they otherwise wouldn't," Mark said. "This is a problem that is getting out of control."

The committee is holding its first investigatory meeting this week to talk with those involved in the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority's U Plans, a tuition program Mark said is underutilized. Later he hopes to meet with bankers, school administrators and other players before delving into the public hearings.

The committee is made up of House representatives from Holyoke and Somerville and senators from Lowell and Wrentham.

"We tried to balance it geographically," Mark said.

For more statistics on student loans, see the American Student Assistance and Project Student Debt websites.

Sheffield Craftsman Offering Workshops on Windsor Chairs

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:30AM / Sunday, March 29, 2026

Andrew Jack uses hand tools in his wood working shop. 

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — A new workshop is bringing woodworking classes and handmade items.

Andrew Jack specializes in Windsor chairs and has been making them for almost 20 years.

He recently opened a workshop at 292 South Main St. as a space for people to see his work and learn how to do it.

"This is sort of the next, or latest iteration of a business that I've kind of been limping along for a little while," he said. "I make Windsor chairs from scratch, and this is an effort to have a little bit more of a public-facing space, where people can see the chairs, talk about options, talking about commissions.

"I also am using it as a space to teach workshops, which for the last 10 years or so I've been trying to do out of my own personal workshop at home."

Jack graduated in 2008 from State University of New York at Purchase, and later met woodworker Curtis Buchanan, who inspired him.

"Right after I finished there, I was feeling a little lost. I wasn't sure how to make the next steps and afford a workspace. And the machine tooling that I was used to using in school." he said, "Right after I graduated, I crossed paths with a guy named Curtis Buchanan, and he was demonstrating making really refined Windsor chairs with not much more than some some flea market tools, and I saw that as a great, low overhead way to keep working with wood."

Jack moved into his workshop last month with help from his wife. He is renting the space from the owners of Magic Flute, who he says have been wonderful to work with.

"My wife actually noticed the 'for rent' sign out by the road, and she made the initial call to just see if we get some more information," he said. "It wasn't on my radar, because it felt like kind of a big leap, and sometimes that's how it's been in my life, where I just need other people to believe in me more than I do to, you know, really pull the trigger."

Jack does commissions and while most of his work is Windsor chairs, he also builds desks and tables, and does spoon carving. 

Windsor chairs are different because of the way their backs are attached into the seat instead of being a continuous leg and back frame.

"A lot of the designs that I make are on the traditional side, but I do some contemporary stuff as well. And so usually the legs are turned on a lathe and they have sort of a fancy baluster look to them, or they could be much more simple," he said. "But the solid seat that separates the undercarriage from the backrest and the arms and stuff is sort of one of the defining characteristics of a Windsor."

He hopes to help people learn the craft and says it's rewarding to see the finished product. In the future, he also hopes to host other instructors and add more designs for the workshop.

"The prime impact for the workshops is to give close instruction to people that are interested in working wood with hand tools or developing a new skill. Or seeing what's possible with proper guidance," Jack said. "Chairs are often considered some of the more difficult or complex woodworking endeavors, and maybe less so Windsor chairs, but there is a lot that goes into them, and being able to kind of demystify that, or guide people through the process is quite rewarding."

People can sign up for classes on his website; some classes are over a couple and others a couple of weekends.

"I offer a three-day class for, a much, much more simple, like perch, kind of stool, where most of the parts are kind of pre-made, and students can focus on the joinery that goes into it and the carving of the seat, again, all with hand tools. And then students will leave with their own chair," he said.

"The longer classes run similarly, although there's quite a bit more labor that goes into those. So I provide all the turned parts, legs and stretchers and posts and things, but students will do all the joinery and all the seat carving the assembly. And they'll split and shave and shape their own spindles, and any of the bent parts that go into the chair."

His gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m to 2 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday by appointment.