Portland Press Herald, September 29, 2006
Editorial: Community college enrollment cap a bad idea
A significant majority of Maine high-schoolers say they want to go to college. But only about half actually do.
So the 11,000-student surge in enrollment at the state's community colleges in the past four years is a hopeful sign.
Much of the increase is attributable to the Early College for ME program, which gives high school seniors the opportunity to take community college courses.
Other contributors are the addition of liberal arts programs and a new emphasis on transferring students to four-year schools. Success has a price. In this case, the price is that the state's seven community colleges are nearing their capacity. Some programs have waiting lists for admission.
Community college enrollment has grown by an astonishing 48 percent, but funding has grown by 10 percent.
If these gains in persuading Maine high-schoolers to attend college are to be expanded, additional funding is clearly needed.
Forests have been felled to supply all the paper needed to document the myriad studies, analyses and complaints about Maine's high tax rate.
The failed Palesky tax cap initiative in 2004 and the upcoming vote over the TABOR spending cap referendum are just two of many signals that Mainers have reached the breaking point.
Education spending has been a rightful target of the tax-weary, but it's the K-12 system that needs fixing.
The dramatic success of the state's new emphasis on community college cries out for support.
Finding the funding needed to add faculty and expand facilities to maintain this momentum will be difficult. But we owe it to our children - and to our economy - to try.