Education & Cultural Affairs meets with Appropriations & Stimulus Updates
March 5, 2009 -
On Feb 24th, 25th and 26th the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee had joint meetings with Appropriations about LD 353 the Biannual Budget. Every agency came and spoke about the governor's budget and what the affects. Again, the whole conversation had the back drop that the stimulus details for education is still unknown at this time. Here are some challenging pieces of the biannual budget for me:
Adult Education - a cut of over $1,200,000 million over the next two years. Funds being cut are Local Program State Subsidies to all Adult Education Centers, College Transition Program, GED Testing Administration and Literacy Volunteers. This is very hard to accept when unemployment is over 7% and enrollment is skyrocketing, and job skills around our green economy are in huge demand.
Higher Education - has a 2.7% cut to the UMaine System of $5,028,700. The loss of funds will hit every campus differently and comes on the heals of the $8,400,000 curtailment in the supplemental buget. The Maine Community Colleges will be losing 2.74% or $1,491,356 for FY 10 and flat funded for 2011. The continued cuts to our UMaine System will cause a corresponding 6% increase in tuition, and due to endowments losing capital there is less money for scholarships. For MCC the funding cuts means more pressure on tuition cost too.
Finance Authority of Maine - has a $1,276,112 for the biannual budget. The cuts will affect four line items Maine State Grant Program, Educators for Maine Program, Maine Health Professionals Program and Maine Access to Medical Education Program. The cut to the Maine State Grant Program will affect the 13,000 Maine students who annually are awarded grants of $1,200. This cut will approximately reduce every grant by $200. The price point if higher education is the biggest indicator of students continuing their education. These cuts are challenging to accept.
