Legislators have unanimously rejected a proposal to make free community college a permanent fixture in Maine, bringing an end to a state-sponsored tuition waiver..
Introduced by Rep. Holly T. Sargent (D-York) and cosponsored by a number of other Democratic lawmakers, LD 1118 would have permanently made community college free for all Maine residents — a benefit that was introduced as an extraordinary, COVID-related measure three years ago.
[RELATED: Should Community College Continue to Be Free? Some Maine Lawmakers Think So.]
To qualify for the proposed program, students would have needed to (1) enroll in an associate degree, diploma, or certificate program at a participating institution, (2) live in Maine for the duration of their enrollment, and (3) accept all available sources of funding offered to them.
For these students, the payment of all tuition and mandatory fees would be waived. Once granted, a waiver would be valid for up to twice the stated completion time for a given student’s program of study.
Beginning on January 1, 2027, the community college system would have been required to submit a report to the Governor, Education Committee, and Appropriations Committee detailing the “status of the program.”
This bill was sponsored by Rep. Holly T. Sargent (D-York) and cosponsored by a number of other Democratic lawmakers, including members of the party’s legislative leadership.
Had this bill been approved, it would have effectively made permanent a program that has been in place on a temporary basis for the past several years and was originally intended to aid students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
First adopted by lawmakers in 2022, the COVID-19 era program upon which this proposal was based allowed those who graduated high school in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 to attend Maine’s community colleges tuition-free.
This benefit was recently extended, however, to include students who graduated from high school in 2024 and 2025, representing a roughly $15 million investment by the state.
During the first wave of the program, approximately 6,400 students were estimated to have attended community college in Maine tuition-free.
It is unclear exactly how much it would have cost the state annually to make this program a permanent facet of Maine’s community college system.
According to Coursera, 33 states — including Maine — currently offer some form of tuition-free community college education, although the degree to which these benefits are restricted varies from place to place.
For example, some states may stipulate that students must pursue a degree in a particular subject in order to qualify, while others may require that graduates work in the state for at least so many years after graduation.
LD 1118 would likely have made Maine’s free community college program one of the least restrictive in the country.
[RELATED: Education Committee Unanimously Rejects Proposal to Make Community College Permanently Free in Maine]
Under the Joint Rules of the 132nd Legislature, bills that are unanimously rejected in Committee cannot be recalled for further consideration unless two-thirds of the members in both chambers vote to do so.
Since no such action was taken during this Tuesday’s session, LD 1118 was officially placed in the legislative files as a dead bill.
