MORE STUDENTS, MORE JOBS

Last February, Gov. John Baldacci asked a group of business and labor leaders and economic-development experts to re-examine the state’s Community College System and find ways to match skilled workers with business demands in Maine. The resulting report challenges the governor and Legislature to invest significantly more in the state’s work force, and for all the talk from politicians about the need for good jobs and a stronger economy, the reaction to this report will show whether they were serious.

They should be serious because Maine’s job growth has been slow, and a disproportionately older population demands an investment from the state – and from businesses themselves – to expand employment to retain and attract more working-age residents. One important way to do that is through community-college education. Every year in Maine, good jobs in health care, precision manufacturing, construction and automotive repair are left unfilled while at the same time the Community College System has a backlog of students who would like to earn associate degrees in these areas but cannot because there are no course openings for them.

The solution, says the group, officially known as the Governor’s Community College Advisory Council, is a massive investment in the colleges to allow 4,000 more students to attend initially, and then raise total enrollment from 17,000 total to 30,000 students over the next 10 years.

Its other recommendations include stressing the occupational programs within the system, providing adequate financial aid, convenient geographic access, which is particularly important for older students, and helping more students go to college through the system’s Early College for Me program. It is a brief, common-sense list and unsurprising – except for the increase in funding, which is more ambitious than any other change the system has seen.

Through these plans, Maine would reach the national average of community-college enrollment at an cost of $20.3 million more in the first year, on a state-budget line of about $46 million. That line would grow year by year as more students were added, but the state would quickly reap the tax rewards of higher salaries and more graduates finding work here. The council would further have the state bond for capital improvements – a $25 million to $35 million bond to repair buildings and expand facilities within the system’s seven campuses.

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Before Maine spends that kind of money, says state Sen. Elizabeth Mitchell of Vassalboro, chairman of the Education Committee, Maine needs more cooperation across higher-education systems and more efficient use of resources. The Community College System is admired throughout the Legislature, she said, and the demand to train more workers for jobs already available is thoroughly supported. But more than either issue, tax reduction will unify the Legislature this winter.

Investments in areas as important as the Community College System are possible if lawmakers use the “cut to invest” model outlined by the recent Brookings Institution report, which recognizes Maine’s shortage of trained workers but also sees a tax burden that is restricting its growth. Real cuts, especially in areas of state administration, leading to actual reductions in taxes in addition to investments in higher education, are the best way for Maine to expand its economy now and be prepared for the future.

But it’s not only the state that should reconsider the way community colleges are funded. Employers say they are desperate for trained workers, but only a relative few have provided funding for training specifically for their businesses. The investment of a couple of thousand dollars per worker could return 10 times that to a company now restrained from expanding due to a worker shortage. As lawmakers consider ways to fund the system, they should look at programs in other states that encourage businesses to contribute to specific areas of training to produce workers in their field, with agreements from students to remain with a business for a number of years and understood protections against competing businesses poaching those workers.

Since the Community College System changed from its technical-college roots in 2003, it has seen a 56 percent increase in high school graduates enrolling. The system, small by most national measures, is approaching a maximum number of students it can educate based on the amount of money provided by the state. Certainly, it should receive more funding so it can expand its mission.

But, at least as important, it should be viewed as a crucial part of this state’s economic development plans, by the state and private sectors, and grown in a way that helps residents find rewarding employment and businesses find skilled workers.