Maine’s community colleges are critical to addressing our needs for skilled workers, but too many students can’t enroll because they can’t afford to go to college.
So to make sure that more students in Maine can enroll in community college, and graduate, and get a good-paying job and start a life-long career, in my State of the State Address this week, I proposed making community college free for two years.
Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.
High school graduates from the classes of 2020 through 2023 – those are people that are most impacted by the pandemic – those who enroll full-time in a Maine community college this fall or next will get every last dollar of their tuition covered by the State of Maine so they can obtain a one-year certificate or two-year associates degree.
If a student has already started a two-year program, we’ve got their back too. We will cover the last dollar of their second year.
Making community college free will not only connect students with good-paying jobs after they graduate – it will help solve Maine’s longstanding workforce shortage and it will strengthen our economy.
Earlier this week I visited Central Maine Community College in Auburn.
Students who graduate from Central Maine Community College will have critical skills in construction, plumbing and heating, mechanical technology, cyber security, early childhood education -- all industries that are waiting for them.
Our state is waiting for our students to strengthen our child care system as an early childhood educator.
Our state is just waiting for our students to graduate and to connect homes and businesses to high-speed internet as a technician or a lineman. I’ll need their help if we are going to achieve the goal we set in the State of the State that every person in Maine have access to high-speed internet by the end of 2024.
Our state is waiting for those students to build new homes for families who want to move to Maine.
Our state is waiting for those students to join the workforce and help strengthen the economy.
If the Legislature approves my proposal, next year, students, if they want, could earn a degree from Central Maine Community College or from community colleges in Bangor, Calais, Fairfield, Hinckley, Presque Isle, Wells, South Portland, or Brunswick – all unburdened by debt.
As I said in my State of the State speech, the future belongs to our young people – and I mean it. I look forward to the Legislature swiftly adopting my supplemental budget to help our young people embrace the future.
This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.