Bangor Daily News, July 7, 2003

Community Commitment

More noteworthy than last week's announcement that the state's seven technical colleges had been renamed community colleges was the fact that the schools had committed to not raise tuition for the next two years. This means the colleges will have not increased tuition for a total of six years. This comes at a time when community college tuition is on the rise nationally. Last year, community college tuition jumped an average of 7.9 percent across the country.

Maine Community College System President John Fitzsimmons is right that keeping costs low will encourage more people to attend the schools. As more and more companies downsize in Maine, displacing workers, the community colleges become increasingly important as an entry point to higher education. The schools train workers for emerging and growing fields, but many of their students also go on to further education, earning degrees to become teachers, lawyers and engineers. That is why expanded cooperation with the University of Maine System is necessary. In a state with limited financial resources, it makes no sense for two schools, albeit in different systems, to offer the exact same courses when a collaborative approach would serve the same end.

While Maine's community colleges have not raised their tuition since 1998, their costs are still very high compared to peer institutions around the country. Tuition is now $68 per credit hour. Combined tuition and fees add up to an average of $2,600 for a full-time student. That is lower than New Hampshire, where tuition will increase $9 per credit hour next year to $133. Tuition alone in that state will jump to $4,000 for a full-time student. Nationally, however, Maine's tuition and fees rank the fourth highest for two-year colleges. The national average tuition for such schools is $1,700.

Students at community colleges are even more sensitive to cost increases than their peers at four-year institutions. Even seemingly small increases in tuition or fees can cause these students to forgo their education to head back into the work force to pay their bills. Community college students are also less likely to take on large student loans to pay for their education.

This means that state support for these institutions is critical. Maine's community colleges were able to freeze tuition thanks to a $475,000 gift from the Osher Foundation and a matching contribution from the state. Absent the Osher money, tuition increases likely would have been in the offing. The colleges are currently raising private funds to set up an endowment in an attempt to keep tuition constant for the rest of the decade, maybe longer.

The result is that more students will enroll in community colleges, lifting Maine from its basement rankings nationally for the percentage of the population with two-year and four-year college degrees. Maine needs to enroll only 1,800 students in college to raise to the top of the pack in terms of the percentage of high school graduates that go on to college. Keeping costs low will go a long way toward moving Maine up the ladder.