AUGUSTA — Several bills aimed at improving college affordability for Mainers were tabled, rejected or watered down in the Education Committee on Thursday by lawmakers who said they wanted to focus their efforts on increasing overall education funding instead of supporting individual programs.
One bill, L.D. 627, would have increased the Maine State Grant awards to $2,500 for first-year college students, and increase them by $1,000 a year up to $5,500 for fourth-year students. The committee amended the bill, by Sen. Rebecca Millett, D-Cape Elizabeth, to remove the tiered increases and strip the funding, and passed a bill that would have the grants increase to $2,500 from their current $1,000 when funding was available. The amended bill passed 7-4 and will go to the Senate.
The committee’s Senate chair, Brian Langley, R-Ellsworth, said he supported the idea of increasing the college grants, but not the additional cost.
“My vote in opposition is not in any way a reflection on the need, because it’s there,” he said. But putting more money into overall funding, instead of funding individual programs, is the “number one priority,” he added.
Also Thursday, the committee tabled a bill, L.D. 784, that would have directed the state’s finance authority to issue a $40 million revenue bond so Maine college graduates could refinance private student loan debt. But it passed another bill, L.D. 878, that would allow the finance authority to create its own product for students to refinance student debt.
The committee also rejected a bill that would have created a unified board of higher education to provide governance for the university and community college systems.
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