Lewiston Sun Journal, March 6, 1999

Editorial: Tech Schools

In a dream world there would be plenty of companies offering $30,000 starting salaries for plenty of qualified college graduates. There would be hundreds of students entering the workforce to claim these jobs and the economy would be robust. We have half of that dream in Maine.

There are lots of high-tech jobs available to college graduates, but there aren't enough qualified graduates to fill those jobs.

According to Scott Knapp, president of Central Maine Technical College, 94 percent of graduates from Maine's technical colleges are placed in jobs immediately after graduation. That's quite an impressive statistic and more people should be able to share in that. But without adequate funding for technical colleges it isn't going to happen.

Maine's seven technical colleges are full and a $3 million investment in Maine's technical colleges would mean a 20 percent increase in student capacity or 1,000 more graduates a year. Knapp believes all of the additional graduates could find jobs as quickly as current grads.

Rep. G. Steve Rowe proposes funding $2 million over the next two years to expand high-tech programs and Rep. Charles Mitchell proposes $4.5 million for "general expansion of the technical college system. The benefit of an additional l,000 (or more) full-time employees working in Maine justifies the investment.