Gov. Mills visits community college campus to make the case for permanent free tuition

Gov. Janet Mills spent Wednesday morning trying on virtual reality headsets, visiting veterinary technician training labs where stuffed dogs and cats sprawled on operating tables, and examining skulls in a human anatomy classroom at York County Community College.

As she interacted with the students, she emphasized how more than half of those enrolled at the southernmost community college campus are taking advantage of Maine's free community college program.

"That's why I'm here," 18-year-old Elyana Odess told the student sitting next to her.

As lawmakers weigh the scholarship's future, Mills' visit was part of a push to make it permanent, describing the pilot program as "vital" to developing a skilled workforce and keeping young people in Maine.

During her last State of the State address in January, Mills emphasized the importance of the program, which was first introduced in 2022. Since then, more than 23,000 students have enrolled in community colleges for free, boosting transfer student enrollment for Maine's public universities and bolstering the workforce.

The Legislature opted not to include language in last year's budget that would have made the scholarship permanent, despite the governor's request, leaving colleges unable to promise free tuition to the high school class of 2026.

This year, the Maine Community College System is more optimistic. After working with Mills, the proposed annual cost of the program has been reduced from $12.5 million to $10 million. The governor's proposed supplemental budget includes $2.5 million in one-time funding to cover the class of 2025 and adds $10 million annually to the state's baseline spending for future years.

"When they put it in the baseline, they're saying, "These are the programs that we've committed to fund on an ongoing basis,'" said David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System.

"Right now, the community colleges can't make a commitment to the class of 2026 because we don't know that the funding is there," Daigler said.

The Legislature's Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee is still working on its proposed changes to the two-year budget. The community college funding is among several significant requests they are weighing.

Even if the ongoing funding is included a future governor or Legislature could still remove it. Mills is termed out after this year. That's why the system is pushing for language to make the program permanent, Daigler said, to give colleges the confidence to make long-term commitments.

Impact of free college

At York County Community College, a dozen current and former students from across the state told Mills how instrumental access to free college had been for them. Some were first generation college students, others had been homeschooled and were unsure about whether they would get in, and one had been unsure about pursuing higher education before she learned she could go for free.

"I was lost in high school, and the thought of taking on a four-year loan for something that I wasn't even sure I wanted to do…" Casey Rand, a Wells resident, told Mills. Then she learned about free community college, and is now looking forward to continuing her education at a four-year university debt free.

"I'm very grateful to be able to participate," Rand said.

Mills told Rand and the other students about her own circuitous path to higher education, which included two gap years during which she waited tables, night school at a commuter college and finally, returning to Maine for law school.

"I'm so impressed with the varied curriculum, and the tools that you have, I never would have envisioned when I was in and out of college myself," she said. "These are life changing differences we're making."

The free college pilot has been overwhelmingly popular with voters, according to a survey last fall of more than 600 Mainers across the political spectrum. More than 80% of respondents said they support the initiative, with 63% in strong support, and only 9% said they somewhat or strongly oppose it. Compared to previous years' polling, support for the program has increased, the report found.

A separate report by Lightcast, a labor market analysis organization, found that the Maine Community College System adds $1 billion to the state's economy annually. For every public dollar invested in the community colleges, $2.70 is returned back into the state over the course of a student's working lives, the report said. That's because those students have a higher earning potential, so they're paying higher income taxes, in addition to filling in gaps in Maine's aging workforce, Daigler said.

Changes to the program

The Maine Community College System worked with Mills to propose changes to make the program less expensive and more effective while also prioritizing Maine students. To qualify, high school graduates would now have to prove Maine residence, or have lived in the state for at least 12 consecutive months immediately prior to the date of admission. Previously, students had to be living in Maine while enrolled, which allowed people from out of state to move to Maine and qualify for the scholarship.

Qualifying students would also now have slightly less time - three years instead of four - to complete a two-year associate degree. And under the changes, the free college scholarship would also only cover 100% of tuition, rather than both tuition and fees. Full-time tuition is $2,880 per year, and fees are $1,276 per year.

Mills described the changes as "getting rid of bells and whistles."

"It's a growing program in terms of the number of people taking advantage of it, we like that," she said. "We're trying not to grow the budget accordingly, but to keep it at a level where it's sustainable."

Daigler explained that the changes - particularly the exclusion of fees - would not impact all students, since free college is a last-dollar scholarship, and many community college students are eligible for federal grants or private scholarships to cover their expenses.

"I think the more accessible it can be, the better," said Zoe Lefluer Keif, a registered nurse who graduated under the pilot program from York County Community College. However, she noted that making the scholarship available for future generations of high school graduates is more important than keeping the pilot version she was able to access.