Action Strategies

1. Create Maine's Promise Scholarship Program to ensure that no Maine student is denied a college education for financial reasons.

Goal: Provide eligible low-income Maine students with access to affordable higher education by ensuring that the full cost of attending college in Maine is covered by financial aid sources, other than student loans, for four consecutive years.

The Challenge: A chief reason that Maine students do not go to college is money. Maine and its New England neighbors are home to the most expensive public and private colleges and universities in the United States. From 1994 though 2001, average in-state tuition and fees at Maine's public colleges and universities were 50% higher than the U.S. average.

Meanwhile, nearly 12 percent of Maine's population--and over a quarter of all public schoolchildren in Maine--live in poverty. People living in poverty are burdened with inadequate housing, unreliable transportation, poor nutrition, chronic illnesses, uncertain health care, unstable family environments, tentative employment and low self-esteem.

A postsecondary education is imperative to break the cycle of poverty and elevate future incomes and quality of life. Although some scholarship programs are currently available to low-income students, nearly half of the available funds are loans. Furthermore, not all scholarship programs pay the full costs of attending college, leaving a sizable amount of unmet need.

The combination of unmet need and reluctance to incur educational debt knocks many students off the road to earning degrees. Some are discouraged from even considering college. Others begin the journey but do not obtain degrees.

The Strategy: The Maine's Promise Scholarship Program will eliminate all unmet need and all student loans for students from low-income households who go to college in Maine. Under this initiative, eligible students will still receive any available forms of public and private merit-based and need-based financial aid (including tuition waivers, grants, scholarships and Federal Work-Study). The Maine's Promise Scholarship Program will fully cover any educational costs (tuition, fees, room and board, allowances for books, supplies and transportation, and personal and miscellaneous expenses) that remain after accounting for these other sources of student aid. And the scholarship program will be available to fill this "gap" for four consecutive years as long as students continue to meet the eligibility requirements.

These students will not be burdened with any educational debt. They would pay the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) determined by the U.S. Department of Education. But because this contribution is calculated based on family income, students with very low incomes will have either zero EFC or a nominal amount.

To be eligible for Maine's Promise Scholarship Program, a student must:

• Be a Maine resident.
• Have a reported family income at or below 200% of the established poverty level.
• Meet campus admissions requirements.
• Enroll in a public or private higher education institution in Maine.
• Be enrolled continuously in a degree program.
• Attend on a full-time basis
• File a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by March 1.
• Maintain a GPA of at least 2.0 on a 4.0 scale.

The Maine's Promise Scholarship Program will also feature a student services system to help eligible students learn about the program and use it. This system will include a toll-free telephone number, linking students to specially trained staff on campuses who can assist them with financial aid issues and dedicated academic advisors to help with transition and retention issues.

The very availability of Maine's Promise Scholarship Program will entice more eligible students who are not currently attending a postsecondary institution to attend. It will enable more currently eligible students who are in school to stay in school and graduate. And it will encourage more ineligible students to become eligible by filing their FAFSAs on time, for example, or keeping up an appropriate GPA.

These intended outcomes are beneficial and desirable. They are also very difficult to estimate. Below is an estimate of statewide student participation in the scholarship program:

Estimated Annual Student Participation in Maine's Promise Scholarship Program

Source: James Breece, University of Maine System and Durward Huffman, Maine Community College System
*Estimate based on distribution of the Maine State Grant Program

The number of students impacted by this scholarship program represents more than 15% of total college enrollment (FTE) in Maine. But these estimates are conservative. A modest growth rate of 33% in attracting new students was used for the projections. This growth rate could easily double, as discussed in Appendix B.

Even assuming a conservative 33% growth rate, this program is expected to generate 630 additional new college and university graduates each year. Over a 10-year period, this would result in 6,300 new degree holders living and working in Maine.

More importantly, this program could break the cycle of poverty for 6,300 Maine residents. A college education will transform their lives. And their children's lives. And their grandchildren's lives.

Related Strategies: For this initiative to work, Maine must also invest consistently and adequately in its public colleges and universities. Educating people is a labor-intensive, technology-intensive endeavor. And it's expensive. The less a state appropriates in tax funds for higher education, the more its campuses must charge students and their families in the form of tuition and fees. From 1996 though 2000, Maine taxpayers invested 21% less per capita in public higher education and state grant programs than the national average. Ever-rising college prices discourage lower- and middle-income families from pursuing college while applying upward pressure on student aid spending.

Download the Action Plan