Salem Carmichael, a student at Eastern Maine Community College studying early childhood education. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar/Maine Morning Star)
Growing up, Salem Carmicheal’s family lived paycheck to paycheck, so she never considered college an option. She had always been interested in early childhood education, but didn’t think she’d be able to pursue a degree until she discovered that through the state program she could attend Eastern Maine Community College for free.
“If I didn’t go to community college for free, I wouldn’t be able to afford to go to any college,” she said.
“For a while there, it kind of saved me as a person, because I was living in my car for a little bit, but I still didn’t have to worry about college being free.”
Carmichael is now preparing to graduate after completing internships in daycares and classrooms and working at the Bangor YMCA.
“Now that I’m in a better place, I’m actually thriving,” she said. “Free college is an amazing thing, I’ve been thoroughly impacted by it positively.”
Students throughout Maine have similar stories as Carmichael. Students who were not considering college as an option, or planned to work directly after school, or were considering taking on debt to attend a four-year university when they learned about Maine’s free community college program, according to several interviews and public testimony submitted by students to the Maine Legislature.
Since its establishment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, the scholarship has allowed all recent high school graduates to attend one of Maine’s seven community colleges for free, even if they don’t qualify for federal financial aid. The program has led to increased enrollment in community colleges and even contributed to an increase in transfer students attending the University of Maine System.
But the future of that program, which is only guaranteed to include those who graduated high school in 2025, is uncertain.
Legislative ‘limbo’
When crafting the two-year budget earlier this year, the Maine Legislature was wrestling with a sizable deficit, which it made several cuts to address. Among those, the budget committee rejected Gov. Janet Mills’ proposed language to fund the free tuition program on an ongoing basis and codify it in statute, instead giving the Maine Community College System a reduced amount for the current biennium, which will help the system continue to offer free college to the high school graduating class of 2025.
The community college system is concerned that means the scholarship is effectively over. But several members of the Legislature who have been supportive of the initiative have said they intend to continue prioritizing funding it for future years.
The heads of the budget committee, Sen. Margaret Rotundo (D-Androscoggin) and Rep. Drew Gattine (D-Westbrook), told the community college system in a July letter that the Legislature needs more information from the system to evaluate the impact of free community college. They asked for detailed cost estimates for the current and following budget cycles, including how much it costs to include nonresidents and students who didn’t graduate from a Maine high school. They also sought data on graduation rates, how many graduates stay in Maine, and potential economies of scale.
“The committee votes did not reflect a final decision on the value of the program so much as a desire for additional information and study of the relative costs and benefits of the program to the state and the participants,” Rotundo and Gattine wrote.
That information, which is due by mid-December, will be considered by either the education or budget committee as they weigh changes to the two-year budget in a change package next session, the chairs said.
Rep. Mike Brennan (D-Portland), who sits on both committees, said free community college “has been enormously successful and has been a big benefit to students in the state of Maine.”
“There’s no intent to end the program, and there was never any intent during this last legislative session on either the education committee or the appropriations committee to discontinue the program,” he added.
A spokesperson for House of Representatives Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) also said the Legislature’s actions do not mean the program is ending, and that “the Speaker is committed to working with lawmakers to review the program with the goal of continuing to fund future graduating classes.”
However, the lack of ongoing funding means the community college can’t promise free tuition to graduates beyond the class of 2025, according to David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System. The system sent out a press release at the end of the session saying the program had ended, which was widely reported throughout the state. But Daigler also said he’s continuing to work with lawmakers and is interested to see what they do next session.
“I think they understand that by not having an ongoing funding mechanism, and by not having language that says, ‘This is our intent,’ after the class of 2025, there really isn’t a free college program. But then they say, ‘We don’t want it to end,’” Daigler said.
“Right now, we’re sitting in limbo.”
Maine alone is walking back free college
Approximately 35 states have some version of free college, but Maine is currently the only state to walk back the initiative, according to two national researchers.
Since 2014 when Tennessee became the first state in the country to offer free community college, many states have started their own programs, either focused on high school graduates, adult learners or both.
In addition to Tennessee, California and New Mexico have established a permanent funding mechanism for the program and don’t require annual legislative approval. But in most states, tuition-free community college programs are funded annually, or semi-annually by the legislature, “which definitely is a problem when you’re trying to create predictability,” according to Michelle Miller-Adams, a senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and a professor of political science at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
In every study that I’ve seen, it takes time, but it pays for itself. It’s just a matter of fronting the cost.
– Ryan Morgan, CEO of The Campaign for Free College Tuition
“We’ve seen states create and continue free college programs over the last four or five years. Maine seems to be the only state right now going in the opposite direction,” said Ryan Morgan, CEO of national non-profit The Campaign for Free College Tuition.
When states offer free college, it boosts the economy and helps create a more educated workforce which results in higher tax revenue for the state, studies from other free college programs have shown.
While Maine’s program is too new to be studied, Morgan said, “It’s a no-brainer. A more educated workforce is going to have economic benefits, increase tax revenues, support businesses and also make a significant impact in the lives of the students.”
“In every study that I’ve seen, it takes time, but it pays for itself. It’s just a matter of fronting the cost,” Morgan said.
Since most other New England states have some version of a free college program, Maine also risks losing students to neighboring states if it does not continue its tuition-free community colleges, Morgan said.
Miller-Adams also emphasized that while many community college students would likely qualify for a Pell Grant or other state or federal scholarships, by simplifying the process it makes it more accessible to those who may not otherwise apply.
“It’s the message that gets delivered that says: ‘You might think college is unaffordable, but guess what? Tuition is going to be covered.’”
Free community college helped broaden options
Tom McNeil, a high school counselor at Winslow High School, also said he’s noticed more students and families opening up to the idea of college.
“Changing the discussion around college affordability, which is what I think free community college has done, has made it easier for people to decide to go to school,” McNeil said.“It’s less scary from a financial perspective, so the kids and their families are a little more ready to take a risk.”
The rate of Winslow High School students continuing their education has been relatively stable for the last eight years, he said, but more students took advantage of the tuition-free community colleges, in lieu of either attending a four-year school or just trying out a few classes.
It’s too soon to tell how the class of 2026 might be impacted if the program ends, but McNeil said his biggest fear “is that it lets an old, unhelpful narrative take hold, that college is not affordable or no longer worth it.”
“This initiative has been a great way to combat that.”
Sam Parker and Abby Steinhagen, students in the Automotive Technology Program at Southern Maine Community College. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar/Maine Morning Star)
Current and former students vouch for free college
Sam Parker had no plans of going to college, and was working in carpentry when his brother sent him a link to the free college program website.
Parker, who grew up in Newfield, decided to enroll in Southern Maine Community College’s automotive technology program. He now has a job working for a Subaru dealership, and said he’s on a career path because he was able to go to community college for free.
“It just gives people another option,” he said.
Similarly, South Portland native Abby Steinhagen took a gap year after graduating high school, unsure whether she would apply to a four-year institution. But upon hearing about tuition-free community college, she also decided to start at the automotive program and is working at Arundel Ford as she finishes her degree.
“It’s taken a lot of stress from having to pay student loans,” she said. “I already work two jobs, but I would not be able to work the jobs that I need to be able to finance something like this if it wasn’t free.”
The automotive technology program was originally set up by local dealerships who were in need of technicians, said Ruth Morrison, who runs the 90-student associate degree program. Because free college helped enrollment grow, there were 25 new technicians working at shops last summer, she said.
“There are so many specialized fields nowadays that you really need those extra two years of education to get a job that’s going to sustain you and in the economy,” she said.
Jordyn Balicki had committed to attending a four-year nursing program at Husson University when she learned about free community college, and ended up changing her mind last minute and enrolled atEastern Maine Community College.
“I would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at Husson, so this was huge stress relief,” she said. She added that being able to work as a Resident Assistant her second year to cover room and board costs while doing externships at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor “helped me actually make money while going to school.”
Balicki now works as a nurse, and appealed to the Maine Legislature this session to continue free college for future high school graduates.
“It was something I definitely didn’t think I was going to do and now I urge everyone to go to a community college,” she said.
“Really, not offering free college from now on is only harming the workforce in Maine.”