A proposal for a major expansion for Maine’s technical-college system would nearly double enrollment, cut tuition cost to national levels, spend millions of dollars on renovating buildings and hire more advisers to help students steer their academic careers. What will be talked about most, however, is its change of name, from technical to community college. The new name may be important to provide a more accurate image of what the system offers, but lawmakers will face the harder question of where to find the money for the rest of the proposal.

A new name could tell prospective students that there is more to the system than occupational courses and that expanded programs leading to associate of arts degrees are transferable to four-year degrees at other universities or to technical degrees within the system. It would tell people who are sure they need college training but are not sure in what area that there is a place for them to get a sense of their skills and options before committing to a more demanding program. Technical-college systems across the nation, according to system President John Fitzsimmons, are changing their names to community college to reflect their changing mission in a changing economy.

Fair enough. If a new name provides a more inclusive description of a system that already provides many of the functions of a community college and does not take away from the system’s technical emphasis, then call the seven campuses community colleges. The more difficult question is how the state would find an added $20 million or so a year starting in fiscal year 2004 and a $20 million bond to fund the expansions President Fitzsimmons has in mind. This is where all the political talk about investing in education meets the reality of an expected budget shortfall in the next biennium of $500 million.

What Maine has gotten and would continue to get through an expanded technical/community college system is a flexible, low-cost path into college, where small campuses and lots of personal attention accompany job-directed courses of study. Students know that if they can complete two years of school, they have an excellent chance of having both a job and a career waiting for them at the end. The proposed name change, President Fitzsimmons points out, isn’t to attract the students who already know they want to begin college but to attract the thousands of Mainers who think they should but don’t know where to begin.

The disconnect between Maine’s top high school graduation rate and its low college-entrance rate has been reported on for years, even as the need for a college education has become more pressing. Too little has been done about it. Lawmakers will have a much better sense of Maine’s economic condition in January, when they will see legislation that would enact this plan. No doubt legislators will have valuable suggestions for improving the proposal, but the underlying need to help more Maine people go to college will remain, with the community-college plan an intelligent response to a worsening situation.