Deirdre Fernandes’s recent story on the impact of boomer retirements (“As boomers retire, growth may slow,’’ Page A1, Feb. 17) raises an important question: Where is the next generation of Massachusetts college graduates going to come from? The state Department of Higher Education has reported on the looming shortage of degree-holders, which is exacerbated not only by the state’s aging workforce but also by a declining population of college-ready high school students.

This spring the department will issue an updated report on the immediate need for more college graduates with degrees at the baccalaureate level or higher. Our taxpayer-supported public campuses are working to address these shortages, targeting degree growth in high-demand occupations such as nursing, computer science, and other health care and technology fields.

Our community colleges, state universities, and University of Massachusetts campuses now educate more than half of all undergraduates in Massachusetts. That fact alone is enough to suggest that it is in everyone’s interest to keep public higher education affordable and accessible, to close achievement and opportunity gaps, and to find ways to engage and graduate more students from underserved communities. Only through these concerted efforts, implemented across the entire system of public higher education, will Massachusetts succeed in offsetting the double whammy of retirements and enrollment declines.

Carlos E. Santiago

Massachusetts commissioner of higher education

Boston