Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel, March 20, 1999, pg. A6
Bills to aid tech colleges make important investments
ONE of the brightest ideas to come out of Maine's education circles in recent years has been the community college partnership between the University of Maine System and the Maine Technical College System.
The two -- long adversaries to some extent, in competition for scarce state higher education funds -- the two announced earlier this year a partnership to give more Maine students access to a college degree.
Through the partnership, technical colleges statewide are now offering, or will soon offer, associates degrees in liberal arts. The systems are working on ways to ensure the credit hours earned through the technical colleges' degree programs will then earn credit toward university degrees, so a student starting at a technical college could, in theory, work his way to a doctorate at the state universities.
The program makes sense because the technical colleges have fewer barriers than the universities. Tuition costs are lower at the technical colleges; the atmosphere is more relaxed; and the technical colleges, as a rule, tend to have more interaction with older, nontraditional students, easing their transition to an academic environment.
So the partnership is a great idea, but it still has problems, not the least of which is cost and availability of technical college schooling.
And that problem doesn't stop just at the partnership. It extends to the traditional core of technical college instruction.
There is a woeful lack of skilled workers in Maine -- experienced machine tool operators, industrial electricians, certified nurse's aides, computer operators, hydraulics mechanics and more. There's plenty of work for such people, but the gap is the cost of training those workers -- many Mainers simply can't -- afford to go to a technical college and earn the knowledge that will put them in better-paying, more promising jobs than they hold now.
While the technical colleges do have lower tuition rates than the university system, the technical colleges still charge an average of $68 per credit hour-meaning a full-time student, taking a 15-credit-hours course load, has to come up with $2,040 per year, not including fees- and yes that's an impediment to Maine's low income people.
There are physical limitations within the technical college system, too: Only so many students can fit into a classroom, a teacher can only instruct so many students, and only one student can use a school computer or other instructional equipment at one time.
To the rescue: House Speaker Steven Rowe, D-Portland, and Pep. Charles Mitchell, D Vassalboro, who propose spending modest amounts of money to open significant new access to the state's technical colleges.
Rowe is sponsor of LD 686, which would spend $2 million over the next two years to expand technical college programs focused on high-technology industries. The money would expand facilities, purchase new equipment, hire new teachers and train current faculty members.
Mitchell has sponsored LD 1701, Resolve, to Increase Access to Maine's Technical College System, which would add $4.5 million to the technical college's budgets over the next four years to give another l,000 Maine students advanced educations.
Not only can Maine afford $6.5 million to put more students through higher education and give them the skills they need to compete in the changing economy; Maine can't afford not to do it.
The evidence that we cannot continue to rely on the state's traditional industries to create more high-paying jobs is overwhelming. The trends in the paper, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing industries are to provide fewer jobs. If Maine wants to keep up -- f we want the economy to grow, rather than shrink -- we must have marketable workers.
Rowe and Mitchell offer big returns for small investments. Both LD 1701 and LD 686 need passage, if Maine is truly on the move.