© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

UMaine System to Seek Increase in State Funding

BANGOR, Maine -  The University of Maine System's Board of Trustees plans to ask lawmakers for a 12 percent increase in state funding over the current budget cycle.  

Dan Demeritt, communications director for the UMaine System, said the trustees decided to seek the increase over a three-year period, during their board meeting Monday in Fort Kent, to address a variety of funding needs.

"That includes CPI increases in the state allocation in support of public higher education in Maine, it includes additional funding to support our early college initiatives where we work with more than half of Maine's high schools to produce college programming in Maine's secondary schools," Demeritt says, "and also more scholarship funds to reach adult learners who have some college credit but haven't yet earned their degree, and we want to get them back into the classroom."

Chancellor James Page told trustees that after a period of austerity, the phased-in increases would signify an investment in the system's mission. Demeritt  said, if approved, the total state appropriation to the system would increase from $200 million in 2016 to $225 million in 2019.