The Opportunity Maine program is a bold, simple and universal promise to reward hard work and a commitment to Maine with educational and economic opportunity. It is a powerful new tool to help our citizens afford a college degree and to build the skilled work force our businesses need.

The program will allow those who earn an associate or bachelor’s degree at a Maine school, and continue to live, work and pay taxes here, to be reimbursed for student loan payments through a state income tax credit. Alternatively, businesses that pay employees’ student loans as an employee benefit will be able to claim the tax credit, providing a substantial, strategic tax cut and a strong incentive to expand or locate businesses in Maine.

This will raise aspirations and, in turn, increase degree enrollment and completion, economic development, and average incomes. By virtually eliminating the burden of educational debt for Maine’s workers, we will strengthen our economy for the long haul.

In a sense, the Opportunity Maine program argues that if we build the work force, the jobs will come. And there is plenty of evidence to bear this out.

After World War II, the GI Bill made a historic investment in educational opportunity. Businesses responded immediately, generating the greatest period of economic expansion and broadly shared prosperity we have ever seen.

Silicon Valley became a center of high-skill, high-wage jobs because there was already a high concentration of skilled workers, world-class research facilities and an enviable quality of life.

Ireland went from being one of the poorest countries in Europe to one of the wealthiest and is a magnet for high-wage, high-skill businesses, largely because of sustained investments in college affordability as an economic development strategy.

Business surveys all show education level of the work force is a top consideration in deciding where to locate or expand. In a recent survey by the Maine Development Foundation, 42 percent of Maine businesses ranked “educated work force” as their No. 1 need, far ahead of other concerns such as taxes, transportation or utility costs.

According to Community College System President John Fitzsimmons, at least 4,200 good jobs requiring a minimum of an associate degree went unfilled or were filled with out-of-state recruits last year because we do not have the skilled work force those businesses need.

The education level of Maine’s work force is hurting our economy and demographics will make this trend worse. Research shows the No. 1 predictor of high average incomes is the percentage of degree holders in the work force. Not surprising, Maine is last on both counts, with incomes and degree completion roughly 25 percent behind the New England average.

Recently, the bipartisan Committee on Future Maine Prosperity came to a unanimous agreement, stating, “Maine must demand an unwavering commitment to prosperity from its leaders in government and the private sector.” To honor that commitment, the No. 1 step for education and work force development in their report is the Opportunity Maine program.

Also just out is the Maine Economic Growth Council’s report on Maine’s economy. One of the few bright spots they highlight is the Opportunity Maine program – if legislators are true to their promise to expand educational opportunity and upgrade the skills of our work force.

The Drum Major Institute, a national, nonpartisan think tank, ranked the Opportunity Maine program one of the 10 best policy initiatives in the country last year, giving us an A+ and the designation “Best of 2007.”

Our organization, Opportunity Maine, brought this idea from citizens’ initiative into law, with the support of chambers of commerce, labor unions, parents, educators, and town councils from Aroostook to York County. The biggest endorsement of all, however, came from more than 500 citizens who collected the signatures for the Opportunity Maine initiative, and more than 72,000 registered voters who stopped to talk with them and to sign the petition. Public support was so overwhelming that, for only the sixth time in Maine history, the Legislature passed an initiative into law – unanimously in the House of Representatives.

Now, we face the challenge of translating the Opportunity Maine program’s promise into results and we are traveling the state meeting with various stakeholders to aggressively promote this.

It will take a sustained effort, and individuals and businesses – including Time Warner Cable, Maine Medical Center, University Credit Union, Diversified Communications, Bangor Savings Bank, Wright Express, Northern Utilities, Bancroft & Co. and Gorham Savings Bank – have joined with us to make educational and economic opportunity a reality here in Maine and build our economy for generations to come. We hope you’ll join us, too.

Rob Brown is executive director of Opportunity Maine.