Just five meetings were needed last fall for a legislative commission to assemble a plan to boost higher education in Maine through a permanent council that would set education targets, advocate for needed support and change a culture that still sees higher education as an option rather than a career necessity. The blue-ribbon commission, which emerged last year from LD 1797, was able to do its work quickly because its members all have extensive experience with these issues and because the answers to Maine’s low college-attainment rate are neither hidden nor terribly complex.

A single council, which would advise both public and private higher education, is way overdue and should be focused intently on expanded opportunity, earlier career preparedness, lower costs for students and increased options for graduates so they can stay in Maine, as explained in the commission’s final report released in January. Just as the Learning Results gave greater statewide focus and coordination to K-12 schools, so should a higher-education council build support and goals for education after high school. The Legislature should support this proposal when it is heard later this month.

The sort of outcomes measured by a high-ed council would be different from the Learning Results, of course, but the idea that state funding can be invested in its college students – both traditional and nontraditional – with positive, measurable results is the same. Instead of just looking at high math scores or history portfolios, as with the Learning Results, higher education would look at, for instance, the number of graduates from various degree programs, the number of those who stayed in Maine, the types of jobs they found, the level of cooperation businesses offer and the amount of new research and development generated.

There is no single way to provide higher education but some ways are better than others and if the state is going to be asked to increase its support, some group needs to keep watch on making sure colleges and universities know which ways seem to be working. And state financial support will be crucial to bringing the percentage of Maine graduates out of last place in the region and bringing new employment opportunities into Maine. A recent survey of the University of Maine System makes clear how important the support is. When tuition has gone up during the past decade, enrollment has dropped and, not surprisingly, the number of bachelor degrees has fallen. The lower the state can drive tuition and the more it can tell potential students about the range of grants and loans available, the more students

it will attract to higher education.

The annual Measures of Growth report released this week by the Maine Development Foundation put a red warning flag next to its benchmarks for degrees attained, lifelong learning and employer-sponsored training, meaning that they are not keeping pace to meet state goals. MDF does a good job with dozens of measures of growth but Maine is far enough behind other states, especially other New England states, to require a more comprehensive approach to measuring higher-education outcomes – and to develop meaningful policy.

The council is an excellent way to begin.