Portland Press Herald, December 20, 2006
Editorial: Higher education has changed for the better
Worries about the impact of a Maine community college system on the state's university system kept the community college idea bottled up for a time in the 1990s.
But four years ago, the powerful logic of creating an affordable and accessible place for people to go to college won out. The Maine technical and vocational college system was retooled as a community college network.
The community colleges have lived up to their potential, both in terms of attracting students to higher education and in having an impact on the university system.
Not only do the two systems compete for funding in the Legislature, but they compete for students. It should be noted, though, that the leaders of both systems are committed to a cooperative relationship.
Still, enrollment at what was the university system's largest campus, the University of Southern Maine, has declined as a consequence of the success of Southern Maine Community College.
That's not surprising. Students can attend two years of community college for about half the price of the university. If they succeed at community college, they're automatically eligible to transfer to the university system and pursue a four-year degree.
Given that at the end of the four years the student who goes to community college has the same degree for less money, it's no wonder that the university system is seeing an impact.
Still, creating and growing a community college system was and remains good policy. The dramatic surge in enrollment at the community colleges -- a system-wide increase of 50 percent over four years for a total of 13,000 students -- is not only attributable to students opting for a cheaper route to a university degree. The community colleges are attracting students who otherwise wouldn't go to college because of the expense or because they can't be too far from home.
And stereotypes of a lesser value and quality of a community college education are just that, stereotypes. In fact, in Maine and nationally, community college graduates who go on to a university get better grades than students who entered a university as freshmen.
Maine will always have a university system, but its mission and focus are being altered by the presence of a community college system here. That's not bad. In fact, over time, the state will reap the benefits of having a better-qualified workforce because it created a cheaper route to educational achievement.
The Legislature should now build on this success by finding the money that will allow Maine to fully realize its community college vision.