While Democrats won the budget battle in rejecting LePage’s budget plan, they lost a ...]]>

Maine lawmakers averted a government shutdown, overriding Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of the budget for FY14 and FY15. Both branches exceeded the required two-thirds vote, with the House voting 114–34 in support of the override, and the Senate voting 26-9 in support.

While Democrats won the budget battle in rejecting LePage’s budget plan, they lost a number of battles including a move to expand health care coverage to 70,000 Maine residents and to raise the minimum wage in Maine from $7.50 to $8.50 an hour.

The $6.3 billion budget:

• raises sales tax for two years from 5% to 5.5%
• raises meals, lodging tax for two years from 7% to 8%
• preserves tax cut of $400 million passed in 2010
• restores $125 million (approximately two thirds of cuts) to municipal revenue-sharing
• increases funding for public education to 47%
• provides funding for Head Start
• restores cuts to program which help senior citizens pay for prescription medications
• reduces the waitlist for MaineCare for those with severe disabilities
• restores funding for merit and longevity pay for state workers

Session highlights

Maine lawmakers:

• Approved a bill requiring the labeling of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) making Maine the second state to pass such legislation. LePage has indicated he will sign the bill in January 2014,when the Legislature reconvenes.

• Created the Maine Skills Gap Program to meet immediate hiring needs of Maine employers. The goal is to encourage students and qualified experienced workers to take positions with Maine companies with significant unmet demand for skilled labor. An employee would be reimbursed a portion of debt while still working for the company.

• Overrode LePage’s veto and approved an energy-efficiency bill, which will expand natural gas infrastructure and lower electricity costs for Maine businesses.

• Overrode the governor’s veto and approved a measure that requires police and law- enforcement agencies to get a warrant to track a user's cellphone location in real-time or obtain historical location data.

• Approved finance revenue bonds to pay the state’s hospitals for services provided to Medicaid  recipients. Hospitals are owed $184 million in state Medicaid funds, which would trigger a $305 million federal match.

Special session

The Maine Legislature returned to work for a one-day special session on Aug. 29 and approved a $150 million bond package for infrastructure projects. The largest proposal was a $100 million transportation infrastructure bond. Three other bond proposals call for investment in science, technology, engineering and math facilities at the University of Maine, Maine Community Colleges and Maine Maritime Academy. A fourth bond proposal funds renovations and repairs for state armories. The bond proposals must be approved by Maine voters in November. Legislators also approved an emergency measure to address overcrowding and staff shortages at a state psychiatric facility. The plan must receive approval from the federal government.

Higher education

The University of Maine System was flat-funded for FY14. The system has a balanced budget, while maintaining tuition and fees at FY12 levels. State appropriations for the system have steadily declined as a percent of the state budget. The budget for FY14 is $6.2 million below FY08 levels.

Much of LD 90, legislation to address workforce needs, was incorporated into the budget (LD 1509) including:

• $500,000 for the University of Maine System to help adults complete their degrees
• $2.4 million to reduce a student backlog for 14 grant programs and allow the system to add more than 250 students.*

Trustees for the Maine Community Colleges approved a tuition increase of $60 over FY13. Full-time undergraduate students will pay $60 more in tuition, paying $2,640.

Maine Maritime Academy's tuition and fees for 2013-14 will be $11,950, up from $11,525 this year.

First-generation college students. The Legislature required the Board of Trustees of the University of Maine to submit to the Joint Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs, a report outlining efforts to increase enrollment and graduation rates of first-generation students as well as data regarding enrollment and graduation rates. Also, University of Maine Trustees will establish a working group to increase recruitment of first-generation college students.

Dual Enrollment. The Legislature created a dual-enrollment career and technical education collaborative partnership to provide a cohort-based learning pathway for career and technical education students to take postsecondary education courses and earn credits toward an associate degree.

Access. The Legislature created permanent commission on Expanding Early Postsecondary Access for High School Students.

The Legislature also provided $27,000 over a two-year period to the STEM Council to hire an executive director to advance science and math education, create career awareness campaigns, and spearhead internship opportunities for high school and college students in these fields.

K-12

The centerpiece of LePage’s education reform package was the implementation of a statewide grading system for public schools. According to LePage, the so-called A–F system will make schools more accountable. Rob Walker, president of the Maine Education Association, criticized the methodology as the grading system gives failing grades to schools with the highest percentage of students on free- and reduced-priced lunch programs, an indication of how socioeconomic factors affect a school’s grade.

Carolyn Morwick handles government and community relations at NEBHE and is former director of the Caucus of New England State Legislatures.

 * Note: updated Sept. 23, 2013.

Related Posts:

NE’s 2013 Legislative Sessions: Rhode Island
NE’s 2013 Legislative Sessions: Connecticut
NE’s 2013 Legislative Sessions: Vermont

University of Maine System trustees approved two new campus presidents. Kathryn A. Foster, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., was appointed president of the University ...]]>

Mount Ida College announced that Barry Brown, provost, professor and former acting president of Suffolk University, would become president of the Newton, Mass. college, effective July 1.

University of Maine System trustees approved two new campus presidents. Kathryn A. Foster, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., was appointed president of the University of Maine at Farmington. Linda K. Schott, dean of the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, was appointed president of the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

Former Southern Connecticut State University President Cheryl Joy Norton, now a senior fellow with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C., was named president of the 8,700-student, state-run Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.

Robyn Carter, former vice president of programs and services at United South End Settlements and network director at the Home for Little Wanderers, was named executive director of Room to Grow in Boston, whose mission is to enrich the lives of babies born into poverty.

The New England region has the highest average tuition and fee rates for 2011-12 across institutional sectors, according to the College Board's most ...]]>

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, in its recently released fourth quarter 2011 New England Community Survey, cited an emerging concern facing low- and moderate-income communities: the escalating cost of higher education.

The New England region has the highest average tuition and fee rates for 2011-12 across institutional sectors, according to the College Board's most recent report on Trends in College Pricing. Meanwhile, NEBHE's 2011 Tuition and Fee report shows the average share of family income required to pay published tuition and fees at New England public institutions has increased across the region, with few exceptions. This change in family income needed to pay for college has disproportionately impacted New England's lower-income families.

Thankfully, some colleges in the region are attempting to buck the trend by freezing undergraduate tuition.

Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire announced that it would freeze tuition at $28,250 for the 2012-13 year, while citing last year's 2% tuition increase as the lowest hike among all four-year private and public colleges in the state. The university also eliminated course fees and campus parking fees.

Similarly, Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts announced that it would hold tuition as well as room and board charges at 2011-12 levels.

The University of Maine system also froze in-state tuition for the 2012-13 year.

The website FinAid, created by Mark Kantrowitz, the financial aid and college planning author who also publishes FastWeb, lists colleges that have cut or frozen tuition instead of raising it.

Monnica Chan is director of policy & research at NEBHE.

Page, a 59-year-old Maine native. is principal and CEO of the James W. Sewall Co., in Old Town, Maine, and an adjunct professor in UMaine’s Department of Philosophy. Sewall Co. provides consulting in the areas of energy, infrastructure and ...]]>

The University of Maine System Board of Trustees named James H. Page as the system's next chancellor.

Page, a 59-year-old Maine native. is principal and CEO of the James W. Sewall Co., in Old Town, Maine, and an adjunct professor in UMaine’s Department of Philosophy. Sewall Co. provides consulting in the areas of energy, infrastructure and natural resources.

Page holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Maine at Fort Kent, a master’s in philosophy from St. Andrews University in Scotland and a doctorate from MIT.

He will begin work at the system on March 20, succeeding Richard L. Pattenaude who is stepping down, after serving as chancellor since 2007.

Clark joins the University of Maine System in New England and 49 institutions nationwide that cover more than 100 campuses with total insured values exceeding $78.9 billion.

Established in 1994 by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, the MPP saved ...]]>

Clark University of Worcester, Mass., is the latest New England campus to join NEBHE's Master Property Program (MPP).

Clark joins the University of Maine System in New England and 49 institutions nationwide that cover more than 100 campuses with total insured values exceeding $78.9 billion.

Established in 1994 by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, the MPP saved participating members approximately $8.8 million in FY2010. The program costs remain below industry averages due to the program's volume, asset-protection strategies and services tailored to college and universities.

For more information, call NEBHE CFO Genevieve Davis at 617.357.9620, ext. 110.

University of Maine System Chancellor Richard L. Pattenaude announced that a search committee has identified four finalists to become president of Maine’s flagship public university in Orono after current President Robert Kennedy steps down in June 2011.

The finalists are: ·        Donald J. Farish, president of Rowan University in New Jersey; ·        Paul W. Ferguson, provost ...]]>

University of Maine System Chancellor Richard L. Pattenaude announced that a search committee has identified four finalists to become president of Maine’s flagship public university in Orono after current President Robert Kennedy steps down in June 2011.

The finalists are:
·        Donald J. Farish, president of Rowan University in New Jersey;
·        Paul W. Ferguson, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs and professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville;
·        Daniel J. Julius, vice president for academic affairs at the University of Alaska System of Higher Education and professor at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks; and
·        James H. Page, principal and CEO of James W. Sewall Company.

For more about the finalists, visit: www.umaine.edu/presidentsearch/finalists/.

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) will hold its ninth annual New England Higher Education Excellence Awards on Friday, March 11, at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf Hotel.

Each year, NEBHE presents Regional Excellence Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and the advancement ...]]>

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) will hold its ninth annual New England Higher Education Excellence Awards on Friday, March 11, at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf Hotel.

Each year, NEBHE presents Regional Excellence Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and the advancement of educational opportunity, and State Merit Awards to honor the innovative work of organizations, institutions or individuals in each New England state.

Please click the links below for more information on the individual awards and their recipients.

• The Hon. Patrick J. Leahy, U.S. Senator, Vermont (The Governor Walter R. Peterson Award for Leadership)
• Terrence MacTaggart, Former Chancellor, University of Maine System (The Eleanor M. McMahon Award for Lifetime Achievement)
• Eastern Connecticut State University & Quinebaug Valley Community College
  Dual Enrollment Program (The Robert J. McKenna Award for Program Achievement)
• Kimon Zachos, Trustee, Southern New Hampshire University (The David C. Knapp Award for Trusteeship)

• The Hon. Denise Merrill, Connecticut Secretary of State and former member of the Connecticut House of Representatives (Connecticut State Merit Award)
• The Bernard Osher Foundation (Maine State Merit Award)
• The Hon. Steven C. Panagiotakos, former member of the Massachusetts Senate (Massachusetts State Merit Award)
• NHHEAF’s Center for College Planning (New Hampshire State Merit Award)
• Dennis Littky & Big Picture Learning (Rhode Island State Merit Award)
• Vermont Dual Enrollment Program (Vermont State Merit Award)

For registration information, click here.

Trustees of the University of Maine System got an update this week regarding the financial and programmatic health of the state’s seven university campuses and its online and distance-learning initiative called University College.

Last year, projected budget shortfalls to the tune of $42.8 million prompted administrators to reevaluate the management and academic structures of the Maine ...]]>

Trustees of the University of Maine System got an update this week regarding the financial and programmatic health of the state’s seven university campuses and its online and distance-learning initiative called University College.

Last year, projected budget shortfalls to the tune of $42.8 million prompted administrators to reevaluate the management and academic structures of the Maine system. At its November 2009 meeting, the board of trustees endorsed a broad-based plan that sought systemwide financial sustainability by 2013. System chancellor Richard L. Pattenaude discussed the plan on the NEBHE website in June.

At this year’s meeting, trustees were presented with a “newly updated multiyear financial plan” outlining scenarios leading to a balanced budget and sustainability for the system in five years. Officials in the chancellor’s office praised the seven Maine campuses for helping in this effort; institutional leaders this year have identified cost savings totaling about $5 million.

Many of these efficiencies and reductions have cost jobs. The system, in an effort to cut spending, has reduced its total workforce by 6% over the past three years. Facing a $5.9 million shortfall, the University of Maine alone trimmed more than 52 FTE positions, though few of those reductions were outright layoffs.

The elimination of many adjunct faculty positions may have also led to spikes in faculty teaching loads and class sizes, and hampered student access to certain courses, as sections were eliminated. Proposed spring cutbacks reportedly threatened the existence of the French department (among others) at the University of Maine, and trustees this week approved the elimination of two bachelor of science degrees in secondary education at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Academic programs at Maine campuses, according to Pattenaude, must pass the “12/5 rule”—meaning that any class with fewer than 12 students and any department with fewer than five majors must defend its continued funding.

Some UMaine System priorities are growing, however. For example, distance and online education credit hours increased this year (at annual rates of 8.5% and 27%, respectively) and community college transfers into the system are up 12% over last year.

Related Posts: Lessons from Restructuring the University of Maine System; Good Intentions: Many Mainers Plan to Go to College, but Few Do (pdf); Maine Compact for Higher Education (pdf)