By all accepted measures by which programs receiving taxpayer money are judged, Experience at Sea is a keeper. Put simply, it saves money and it works.

One year is, of course, too short a time for a full assessment, but this innovative foster care experiment by Community Health and Counseling Services had an impressive maiden voyage. Nine boys – all in their mid-teens, all nearing that perilous time when they leave state care and must fend for themselves – began rigorous training last September. One month at Outward Bound to learn the basics of seamanship, including the associated skills of teamwork and self-reliance, was followed by nine months serving as crew aboard the century-old schooner Lettie G. Howard on a voyage from Maine to South America and back.

The adventures these boys had and the personal growth they underwent could – and hopefully someday will – fill a book. The cost-benefit analysis won’t make a gripping read, but it is highly relevant in these times of state budget shortfalls.

The total cost per day per boy was $259. That’s a lot, but foster care costs a lot. The daily rate for a typical foster care group home in Maine – including counseling, medical care and supervision – is $263, plus education costs, according to CHCS; the rate at the organization’s 10 traditional group homes ranges from $250 to $300. Because CHCS wisely erred on the side of caution on this first time out, the Howard was filled to only 85 percent of capacity. With a full crew of 12 boys, the daily rate would have been $220, substantially lower than any similar group home licensed and supported by the state.

The benefit: Of the six boys who completed high school during this program, five are headed to college. The sixth hooked up with a commercial schooner during the voyage and now has a full-time job and plans to attend Maine Maritime Academy. That’s six successes out of six potential heartbreaks, a remarkable record for any segment of the teen-age population. It is astounding for this particularly unfortunate one.

CHCS says one reason Experience at Sea costs less also helps explain the success: the usual 2-to-1 ratio of adult staff to children at group homes was reversed on the Howard. Instead of having an adult sit up all night to keep the boys out of trouble, the boys took their turns at the watch to keep their ship safe. That after a full day of hauling lines, cooking, cleaning and studying.

And yet, of all the foster care group homes receiving state funding, Experience at Sea is the only one targeted for elimination in this first round of budget cuts. The official position of the Maine Department of Human Services is that it is a great program but too expensive (although DHS is having a hard time providing numbers that compare the cost of it with other group homes for this age group). It seems already to be at the low end of the daily rate, it has the very real potential to be the absolute lowest (two other states want to fill any vacancies that might occur on future voyages) and, because these boys would need foster care whether their group home is on land or sea, those higher daily rates will have to be paid. DHS has said it will reconsider this decision if CHCS can come up with additional private funding. CHCS has done just that, yet the decision stands.

The feeling among some associated with the sailing program is that the department’s unofficial position concludes that Experience at Sea may be a great program, but some people – the media, the public, legislators, who knows? – would go wild with the idea that the state is sending boys on a Caribbean cruise. Better, apparently, to kill a very promising program than to have to do the hard work of explaining something innovative, even if it saves money and works.