The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
John Baldacci, a Democrat, served as Maine’s governor from 2003 to 2011. He led the effort to establish the state’s community college system in 2003. John McKernan, a Republican, was Maine’s 71st governor from 1987 to 1995. He has served as chair of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges since its inception in 2010.
Making the Maine Free College Scholarship permanent for the high school graduates of the Class of 2026 and beyond delivers on a promise the two of us made decades ago — and maintained since — to keep a community college education affordable to as many Mainers as possible.
Now Gov. Janet Mills is working to secure that same promise for future generations, by making permanent the Maine Free College Scholarship. Her plan invests $10 million in state funds annually to guarantee recent high school graduates in Maine a tuition-free community college education. It is a sound and profound decision.
If passed by legislators in Augusta, the investment will pay off for not just for students and their families, but for the state’s coffers in the form of more tax revenue, for local businesses in the form of more skilled labor available, and for communities who will have more vibrant, engaged, and employed residents. Already, more than 23,000 Maine Free College Scholarship-eligible students have participated since the last-dollar scholarship program began in 2022.
The two of us have worked tirelessly, and across party lines, over the past quarter century to evolve the community colleges. As public leaders, we are partners in helping the state’s public two-year colleges find and secure the resources and tools they need to fulfill their state-ordered mandate of creating the educated, skilled, and adaptable workforce Maine needs to fill jobs in Maine’s economy.
That was the vision when Gov. Baldacci led the effort to evolve what were then vocational technical colleges into a true community college system that expanded its academic offerings and offered an affordable pathway to four-year colleges.
At the same time, Gov. McKernan started his tenure as chairman of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges, leading fundraising and making connections to strengthen the colleges. To date the Foundation has raised over $147 million in support of the colleges’ programs, infrastructure, and scholarships. The Maine Free College Scholarship will allow those philanthropic and grant dollars to stretch even farther.
As a state, we committed long ago to making local, affordable access to quality post-secondary education a priority in Maine. Despite having the lowest tuition in New England, affordability remains one of the greatest barriers to higher education for Mainers. Making the Maine Free College Scholarship permanent is the logical, practical, and necessary next step to true affordability.
We now applaud and welcome Gov. Mills into our mutual efforts to keep growing and strengthening Maine’s community colleges and making sure they remain affordable and accessible to the largest number of Mainers possible.
We urge today’s lawmakers to support this economic engine for Maine, giving young people the opportunity to pursue a tuition-free degree, while knowing their state believes in them and their potential.
