Kennebec Journal, July 3, 2003
(Also ran in the Morning Sentinel)
Tech schools transformation will boost state
They'll be arguing about this one for years — which campus gets to claim bragging rights as Maine's first official community college. A group from Northern Maine Community College in Aroostook County climbed Mars Hill Mountain for a sunrise gathering on July 1, while another group from the Washington County Community College boarded the "Otto Miller" and floated off West Quoddy Head when the sun rose on a new era in Maine higher education.
In the end, which school actually succeeded in this lighthearted competition is of little concern to most Mainers. What matters most is that Maine has now joined virtually every other state in the country in creating a community college system that opens up higher education to every high school graduate, from Kittery to Fort Kent.
On July 1, Gov. John Baldacci presided over the transformation of the Maine Technical College System into the Maine Community College System. "This is an historic day for our higher education system, and for Maine," Baldacci said. It brings "affordable, accessible college opportunities to Maine people."
Baldacci's words can not be enthusiastic enough. Elsewhere, community colleges have helped residents develop marketable job skills and opened a path to four-year bachelors degrees at a rock-bottom, affordable price. Since their inception, community colleges have democratized higher education, removing the financial and cultural barriers that stood between a majority of high school graduates and satisfying, high-paying careers. In fact, community colleges now enroll more than 40 percent of all undergraduates in the United States.
In Maine, graduates have not always had the same opportunities. Although this state boasted excellent private colleges, a moderately affordable state university system, and seven accessible technical colleges, it had no low-cost, open admissions community college from which students could earn associate degrees or move on to a baccalaureate program. In the last decade, both the University of Maine and the technical college system sought to address that gaping absence with associate degree programs and credentials, but what was truly needed was a stand-alone community college system.
Without such a system, Maine suffered a skills deficit. While a high percentage of students graduated from high school, few went on to college. That ultimately showed up in wages, where Maine ranks among the lowest performing states in per capita income.
The July 1 transition is more than a name change. The new Maine Community College System will focus on preparing more students for transfer to baccalaureate programs at the universities, opening up admissions to students who are still undecided about their careers or who may need extra help before attending college classes, expanding the arts and sciences curriculum and — significantly — keeping tuition low.
Thanks in part to a grant from the Osher Foundation, which matched a $1 million state appropriation, the system has frozen the price of tuition at $68 per credit hour for the next two years. While this remains above the national average for community colleges, the system's strategy is to reach parity by freezing its tuition while prices increase elsewhere.
System president John Fitzsimmons has been working on this transformation for many years, and deserves much of the credit. But Baldacci, former Gov. Angus King, and state legislators also merit praise for making Maine's community college system a reality despite the state's budgetary woes. While almost any kind of government spending can be called an investment, it's hard to think of any program that offers a better return on taxpayer money than education.
Welcome to the state, community colleges. Maine's glad to have you!