For the first time next year, tuition at the University of Maine System is expected to exceed state appropriations, a result of the state share falling from more than 70 percent of the total budget in 1989 to just 45 percent by 2007. Maine lawmakers spend a lot of time describing the virtues of Maine students going to college, but when it comes to supporting them financially, the support is ever more meager.

Under the current funding, the university system will run a deficit of about $10 million next year; a proposal in the Legislature would re-allocate some money already budgeted and provide the system with an added $4 million. That is welcome and deserved. Lawmakers should support the shift if it can be done fairly, but they should also know that it is not enough.

State universities nationwide are being hit with decreased funding from state governments, but Maine’s cuts seem to have started earlier and been deeper. According to system numbers, the state appropriation for full-time equivalent students, adjusted for inflation, has fallen over 17 years from $8,200 per student to $5,100. Everyone wants Maine students to be able to afford college; everyone wants a strong university to be waiting when the students are ready to go. But the slow starvation of the system makes it less affordable and less healthy.

When Chancellor Joseph Westphal proposed, in a relatively small way, to consolidate aspects of some of the system’s seven universities, local supporters were outraged – they defended their schools and argued for their autonomy. Chronic underfunding does far more to shrink the local universities than anything the chancellor had in mind, yet very few people are protesting the budget squeeze.

The University of Maine System is an essential part of the state’s future. It needs not just a few million dollars to make its budget deficit a little less deep but a renewed commitment from lawmakers to support this largest part of Maine’s higher education network. Maine can’t afford to let this decades-long slide continue.