\n<\/p>\n
Maine community college leaders and students breathed a sigh of relief after lawmakers narrowly passed a supplemental budget permanently funding the state\u2019s free community college program, albeit with some cost-saving tweaks. Gov. Janet Mills, who proposed and has been a driving force behind the program, signed the legislation Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis biennial budget should send a clear message to every young person in Maine: if you are willing to work hard and build your future here, Maine is ready to invest in your success,\u201d Mills said in a news release.<\/p>\n
The free college program began in 2022 to support high school classes affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with hopes of making it permanent down the line. It covered tuition and fees at Maine community colleges for those who graduated from 2020 through 2023 and was later extended to the Classes of 2024 and 2025. But last summer, the Maine Legislature\u2019s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee threw the program into limbo when lawmakers raised concerns about the program\u2019s long-term sustainability and declined to make it permanent.<\/p>\n
The move left Maine on the brink of becoming the first state to establish and then take away free college. But after months of dialogue with the governor, community college leaders and students, and an outpouring of public support for the program, the Legislature ultimately voted in favor of sustaining a less expensive version of the program.<\/p>\n
David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System, said the program\u2019s future felt uncertain to him \u201cright down to the wire. I was taking nothing for granted.\u201d But that anxiety has now been replaced with a \u201csense of jubilation\u201d on campuses and among high school students who now know for certain they can take advantage of the program.<\/p>\n
When Maine\u2019s program hung in the balance, Daigler said he heard from a high school counselor that students \u201cused up a full box of Kleenex because they realized they weren\u2019t going to have enough money to go to college\u201d if the program didn\u2019t continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe free college program gives those very students the opportunity to continue their education,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
To get there, Daigler and other program advocates had to make some concessions. Going forward, the program will cover tuition but not student fees, which amount to roughly $600 per semester. Because it\u2019s a last-dollar program, students who receive the Pell Grant can apply it to their fees and still pay nothing, but Daigler said he does worry for students \u201cjust above the Pell line.\u201d The program will also give students three years instead of four to complete their studies. And students must reside in Maine for at least a year before they\u2019re eligible for tuition coverage. The program was originally designed to include out-of-state students in hopes of coaxing young talent to the aging state, where deaths now outpace births and retirements are leaving gaps in the workforce, Daigler said.<\/p>\n
Still, he believes these modifications are a small price to pay for the state continuing to cover students\u2019 tuition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s essentially how legislation is made,\u201d Daigler said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to all sit at the table, roll up our shirtsleeves and try and make sure that we find the formula that meets everybody\u2019s objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shawn Patrick Ouellette\/Portland Press Herald\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Southern Maine Community College Thursday, November 4, 2021.<\/p>\n
Student Jason Early, who\u2019s graduating from York County Community College this spring and advocated for the program to state lawmakers, said he was similarly \u201cdisappointed\u201d by students having to pay fees from now on. He hopes the Legislature might revisit that provision down the line.<\/p>\n
But \u201cif they have to make a compromise somewhere for [the program] to continue, well, it\u2019s better than it ending completely,\u201d said Early, who\u2019s heading to the University of Southern Maine in the fall. \u201cPeople who weren\u2019t expecting that they\u2019re going to be able to go to college are now able to. I feel like that\u2019s such a great thing, just to have a more educated populace in Maine. I really think it\u2019s great for everybody.\u201d <\/p>\n
Victoria Wile, a student at Central Maine Community College who also spoke out on behalf of the bill, said the program partly drove her decision to earn her building construction technology associate degree at the college\u2014the same institution her grandmother, grandfather and mother have attended. She\u2019s now working on the college\u2019s maintenance team while she earns her second degree in facility maintenance and management.<\/p>\n
The program \u201callowed me to focus on the schoolwork rather than trying to pay the bills\u201d and put the money she saved toward other costs, including a study abroad experience and the tools she needed for her courses, she said. \u201cI really didn\u2019t want to go into college just to rack up debt.\u201d Attending CMCC \u201cbecame an easy decision, and it ended up being a very worthwhile decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wile said she\u2019s glad to see Maine\u2019s free college program continue so that her brothers and other Maine students can \u201cget the same opportunity and financial freedom\u201d she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope other Mainers, other students who wouldn\u2019t otherwise be able to attend college, really take advantage of the opportunity they have,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause I definitely wouldn\u2019t be the same if I didn\u2019t have the opportunity of free college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the trade-offs made to keep the program alive, Daigler sees the moment as a good omen for the free community college movement as a whole. Preserving the program during a time of intense political polarization and a lean budget year indicates how popular free college is as a policy, he said.<\/p>\n
As fewer federal dollars flow to states, \u201ceverybody has to tighten their belt\u201d and take cost-saving measures, Daigler said, but Maine lawmakers made \u201ca very strong legislative commitment, driven by a very strong popular opinion that this program is necessary.\u201d A fall 2025 poll found that 80\u00a0percent of Maine voters supported continuing the program. And enrollment has surged at the community colleges since the program began. More than 23,000 students eligible for the program have enrolled.<\/p>\n
Morley Winograd, chairman of the board for the Campaign for Free College Tuition, agreed that Maine\u2019s triumph is a win for the movement. He also believes the modifications made to the program were \u201creasonable\u201d and don\u2019t taint the victory.<\/p>\n
More than 30 states now offer some form of tuition-free community college, and none of them have rescinded these programs, despite executive transitions in some of these states, \u201cwhich is great evidence that they are an essential and important part of the overall U.S. higher education system and also a great benefit in this time of high, high concern over affordability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In fact, Winograd expected states to propose cutting back on free community college programs amid heightened uncertainty around federal funding. But so far, that hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not seen such activity of any consequence,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich may be simply a lull before the storm, because a lot of state budgets are still operating on assumptions from last year\u00a0\u2026 and a lot of them have midyear deadlines\u00a0\u2026 but at this point, no, this has not been a big issue anywhere that we\u2019re aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also pointed out that Gov. Mills is running for Senate and has touted free community college as one of her landmark accomplishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it further reflects the popularity of the program,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a bipartisan idea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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