The state of higher education in Maine

Each year, the president of the Maine Community College System and the chancellor of the University of Maine System address a joint session of the Maine Legislature and report on their systems’ achievements over the past year. On Feb. 15, the Legislature welcomed President John Fitzsimmons and Chancellor Terry MacTaggart to the State House in Augusta.
    President Fitzsimmons addressed some of the challenges the state’s community colleges have been facing in recent years. Chief among those challenges is an enrollment increase of nearly 50 percent over the last five years. While it is good news that more students are flocking to community colleges to further their education, state funding has not kept pace with the increases. The lack of funding has created waiting lists, and because of these lists, more than 4,000 jobs went unfilled last year in Maine.
The solution to this problem is to increase capacity at these schools. The Legislature supported this solution in April 2006 when it appropriated several million dollars of emergency funding to the system. This biennium, Gov. John Baldacci has proposed increasing funding by nearly $12 million – more than 11 percent. I support this proposal, and I have also submitted a bill this session to increase funding for on-site workforce training for employers through the “Quality Centers” program.
Chancellor MacTaggart informed the Legislature that there are more than 45,000 full- and part-time students at the state’s universities. He also reported on how the system is increasing its efficiency through partnerships with the Community College System, local employers, and K-12 schools.
University students are not doing their work in a vacuum – Maine’s universities have been working to help grow Maine’s economy by investing money in the research and development of students’ ideas and turning those ideas into jobs. The Maine Economic Improvement Fund, which was created by the Legislature in 1997 to fund university researchers in projects that are consistent with the state’s economic growth strategies, has been a driving force behind these research and development efforts. In the past 10 years, the state has invested $80 million in seed money to university research projects, which has enabled researchers to leverage an additional $305 million in matching investments. Last year, those combined funds resulted in the creation of 717 full-time positions.
One of the best examples of the important projects funded through the Maine Economic Improvement Fund is Dr. Habib Dagher’s wood composite research. It resulted in a product used in the production of a “modular ballistic protective system” that protects U.S. soldiers in combat zones. A shipment of the protective composite panels was recently shipped to a Maine National Guard unit stationed in Afghanistan.
In recent years the state has worked to increase funding for the quality education and research at the University of Maine System. I worked with Sen. John Martin last April to secure several million dollars in the emergency funding for Maine’s universities. The commitment extended to this biennial budget, which includes a $5 million increase for the Maine Economic Improvement Fund and over $14 million for ongoing education operations.
Maine’s highest priority must be investing in our future, and that means investing in the quality and the capacity of our state’s institutions of higher education.
Rep. Fischer represents District 5, part of Presque Isle. He is serving his third term and is the House chair of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee. He may be reached by phone (551-3097), by mail (6C Third St., Presque Isle, ME 04769), or by email (RepJeremy.Fischer@legislature.maine.gov).