“Do you favor a $9,000,000 bond issue to make building renovations at campuses of the University of Maine System, improve and expand the facilities of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine and make building renovations at campuses of the Maine Community College System?”

This is much-needed money. It is the kind of nuts-and-bolts funding that keeps labs open, classrooms operating and more students going to college. The bond covers the state – from the Southern Maine Community College to the University of Maine at Fort Kent – with funds for projects important to keep these institutions running.

For instance, the University of Maine at Machias would use part of its share of the funding to replace a boiler and update a fire-alarm system. Eastern Maine Community College, like several other schools in both systems, would use a portion of its funding to improve energy efficiency; another portion would go to roof repair. Northern Maine Community College would spend its portion on adding insulation and new windows as well as upgrading safety and security systems. The University of Maine at Farmington would renovate labs and a lecture hall in addition to its own energy-efficiency improvements.

It would have been better if the Legislature had invested in these schools over the years so they aren’t scrambling when an energy crisis arrives. It would have been better when lawmakers worked on helping more students attend these schools that they also recognized that meant more wear and tear, more demands on equipment, and, therefore, bigger maintenance budgets. They didn’t, and they are unlikely to in the near future because tight budgets often lead legislators to leave decisions – plus interest – up to voters.

By almost any measure Maine’s community college system performs remarkably well. It has transformed itself as the workplace has transformed, more often aligning its coursework with the university system to prepare students for four-year degrees. In just the last three years, enrollment is up more than 40 percent, with 3,000 additional students now attending classes.

Within the university system, Southern Maine’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute would receive $2 million – to be matched by $4 million in private funding – to expand this valuable opportunity for residents 55 and older. The institute is the resource center for more than 70 of these programs nationwide, an appropriate designation for a state with a rapidly increasing number of older residents and for a state that would like to attract more retirees.

As much as it would be preferable to fund upgrades through regular budgeting processes, the bond should be strongly supported because the institutions it supports are too valuable to lose.