A generous gift and matching public funds will make attending a course free for 125 students within the University of Maine System this fall, according to an announcement this week. An eye-opening set of statistics in the June issue of The Atlantic Monthly describes why taking advantage of such gifts is so important.

The gift comes from Bernard Osher, a Maine native and California businessman who has been a long-time supporter of the university system. The statistics come from Joel Rogers, a professor of sociology, law and political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. In their article called America’s Forgotten Majority, they identify what they call the Great Divide – the gap between the one-quarter of white working class people who have college degrees and the three-quarters who do not.

The article is about political influence, but consider the following passage. (F)rom 1979 to 1999 the average real hourly wage rose 14 percent for those with college degrees and 19 percent for those with advanced degrees. In contrast, average wages fell by 4 percent for those with only some college, 10 percent for those with only a high school diploma, and a stunning 24 percent for high school dropouts. Men among the latter three groups did even worse: they were down 7, 15 and 27 percent respectively.

Maine lawmakers have had numerous debates in recent years over minimum wages and living wages – and certainly should be looking out for the most vulnerable — but no likely amount of government protection is going to shield workers from this wage trend. Any high-school student thinking of trying to get by without further education today had better have a brilliant Internet idea, a trust fund or a willingness to live cheaply in the next few years and in poverty thereafter.

Maine has a particular problem in this regard. Its average wage already is in the bottom dozen among states and its rate of college attendance is similarly low. If these conditions and the 20-year drop described by Mr. Rogers and Mr. Teixeira continue, Maine will fall further behind, and many of the people in its workforce will have to work harder than ever just to pay the bills. For everything else college offers – and it offers plenty beyond job skills – a degree is now not just a way to make a better life for yourself and your family. It is fast becoming the way to ensure you can afford life’s necessities.

That makes Mr. Osher’s gift better than free tuition and the thought of forgoing higher education less and less an option.