Central Maine Newspapers, April 8, 1999, pg B3
Technical colleges eye expansion
By PAUL CARRIER Blethen Maine Newspapers
AUGUSTA -Jeff Jones tried to enroll in the lineworker training program at Kennebec Valley Technical College almost as soon as the school started taking applications, but that wasn't soon enough. Now Jones, an Air Force veteran who lives in South China, is on a waiting list, and he may be stuck there for a year.
Lisa McLeod of South Portland, a single mother of two, had to delay her enrollment in a computer technology program at Southern Maine Technical College because it was full when she applied in 1997. She's a student there now, but her late startup means she won't enter the work force as soon as she had hoped.
And in Lewiston, the Sisters of Charity Health System sometimes has as many as 100 openings in its hospital and nursing home, many of them for skilled workers, because there aren't enough qualified Mainers to fill them. "We bring a lot of people in from out of state through our Web site" on the Internet, said Winfield Brown, a company official.
Jones, McLeod and Brown joined other employers, students and would-be students Wednesday in urging the Legislature's Appropriations Committee to back a bill that would provide enough money for the seven-campus Maine Technical College System to take in another 1,000 students.
The bill seeks $2.2 million in each of the next two years to hire faculty, buy equipment, expand existing programs and create new ones. It would allow the technical colleges to add 500 students this fall and another 500 a year later, according to John Fitzsimmons, president of the technical college system.
Supporters say that would expand enrollment in degree programs from 5,200 to 6,200 at a time when the system has many more applicants than it can possibly serve and many Maine employers cannot find Mainers to fill skilled jobs. Last fall, for example, the technical college system had 5,500 applicants for 3,100 first-year openings.
The bill won bipartisan support from key lawmakers at Wednesday's hearing, although several members of the Appropriations Committee requested a more detailed explanation of how the technical colleges would use the extra money and how the funding in this bill ties in with other legislation under review. The other bills include two proposed bond issues to upgrade the technical colleges.
"Expanding access to higher education is one of this Legislature's best tools for stimulating economic development,'' House Majority Leader Michael Saxl, D-Portland, told the committee.
Saxl noted that 94 percent of technical college graduates find jobs or continue their education, and 96 percent of those who find work when they graduate stay in Maine. Almost all first-year students, 94 percent, are Maine residents.
House Minority Leader Tom Murphy, R-Kennebunk, said the bill's $2.2 million annual price tag is misleading because the state will gain more than it spends by training more Mainers for high-paying jobs. "I think we're going to find that there won't be a cost," Murphy said. "There will only be a benefit to the state of Maine."
"It's sad to see the students turned away," said McLeod, the South Portland computer student. She said the program she is enrolled in at Southern Maine Technical College recently grew from 50 to 72 slots but it now has 120 applicants.