Tuition at the University of Maine, for example, has increased 50 percent since 1989, adjusted for inflation. Maine students are working more hours at part-time jobs and becoming mired in debt to pay their way through school. Students are finding that even when they graduate, their college days aren't over. Employers require workers to upgrade their skills continually. Yet private companies, as well as the state and federal governments, are cutting back on programs that help pay for people to go to school.
Maine lags behind other states in the percent of high school graduates who go to college.
Getting more Maine high school graduates into college is a critical issue for the state. Census figures showed only 26 percent of Maine's population had a college degree in 1990, the lowest level in New England. Research, also based on the census, found that almost 70 percent of the workers in Maine with graduate or professional degrees were not born in this state. Having a skilled work force is vital to Maine. Companies need the best trained workers they can get to compete in the global economy.