Senator Millett, Representative MacDonald and esteemed members of the Joint Standing Committee on Education & Cultural Affairs, my name is Justin Alfond. I am a resident of Portland, I am honored to serve as President of the Maine Senate and proud to represent Senate District 8, which includes most of Portland and the islands of Peaks, Cliff and Great Diamond. Today, I am pleased to appear before you as the sponsor of LD 1637, “An Act to Increase College Affordability and the Rate of Degree Completion.”

I want to start by thanking you for approaching this issue in such a thoughtful and comprehensive way. Education policy has been a priority to me since my first term in the Legislature, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of you on some very important issues. One of the things I’ve learned is that these issues are complicated; and our best intentions don’t always yield the results we were hoping for. And so I commend you for your approach of gathering information and hearing from national policy experts as you consider potential solutions.

There are two things that I think we all can agree on. One is that college is expensive. It’s costing our students more each year and is putting a financial burden on students and their families. A December 2013 study demonstrated that the availability of grants and other financial incentives are not keeping pace with increasing tuition costs, and that average debt for Maine college students had jumped to $29,352, a 25% increase over the 2008 national average. This puts Maine at the 7th highest debt per student in the nation. Maine must do better.

The second thing I hope we can agree on is that this trend of rising college costs is preventing many Maine students from starting and completing college degrees. For example, a recent Pew survey showed that half of 18-34 year olds, nationally, who are not enrolled in school stopped their education because they couldn’t afford it. Especially today, when study after study details how important a college education is to both an individual’s earning potential and to the Maine economy, we need to keep college affordable and accessible to everyone.

And that’s why this issue, and this bill, is about more than just debt. It’s also about degree completion.

My bill contains nine promising ideas, from studying a “Pay It Forward” model to guaranteed tuition rates, that Maine could undertake to make college degrees more affordable and attainable for Maine students. I have purposefully put a large number of ideas and proposals into the bill so that the full range of options can be considered. I don’t claim that any of the proposals will be a silver bullet or will be the one solution to the problem. Instead, I wanted the issue examined and discussed broadly — and there may also be great ideas that are not in the bill.

For example, I was recently informed by an expert in higher education that increased academic counseling and support could lead to dramatic results in retention and graduation rates. They told me that students, who were just a few credits away from graduation, were able to use increased academic counseling to cut through confusion about requirements and complete their degree.

You have already heard today from some panelists about national and regional trends. Upcoming panels will focus on Maine-related issues. This discussion will give the panelists an opportunity to inform the committee about both the challenges that Maine must confront, and some of the successes we may already be having, and should build upon.

Whether the issue is income inequality, job creation, strengthening the economy, workforce development, the nexus for each of these is degree affordability and attainment.

While it may be a heavy lift, I’m confident that we have the will and determination, and the tools and guidance, to solve this issue together–so that we can help the thousands of Mainers facing barriers to degree completion and degree affordability. The time to act is now.

I’d like to thank the committee for your time, and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.