Bridge Year grants to help TCTC students
Staff Report
AUGUSTA — As many as 225 students will earn approximately two semesters of college credit before they even graduate from high school, thanks to $500,000 from the Maine Department of Education to support the innovative Bridge Year Program.
Gov. Paul R. LePage and Maine Education Commissioner Jim Rier announced last week that 12 career and technical education (CTE) centers will receive state support to help high school juniors and seniors get a head start on their college coursework through the University of Maine.
Tri-County Technical Center of Dexter, in partnership with Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, is one of six tech centers that will receive a $20,000 grant to implement the program.
Program participants will be able to earn up to 30 college credits, which would allow them to complete an associate’s degree within 12 months of high school graduation. Courses are taught by high school instructors who have been approved by the university and will cost students just $45 per credit hour, which is considerably less than UMaine’s going rate.
Students will concurrently receive a technical skills-based education through their CTE center that will put them on a career track in occupations including those related to automotive, business, electrical, equipment maintenance and repair, health and public safety.
“This is the model for how the public K-12 system, higher education and the workforce could be aligned in a way that engages kids early on and truly ensures their college and career readiness,” said Rier. “We feel confident these students will go on to be very successful in college, because they already have proven they can be.”
This spring, a pilot class of the Bridge Year Program will graduate from Hermon High School. Early indications of success with that class led the LePage administration to propose $2 million in the current biennium budget to bring opportunities to students statewide, but the Legislature reduced that request to $500,000 last summer.
The governor has recently proposed $1 million to maintain the program in FY15. Until then, Maine DOE is working to stretch the existing $500,000 as far as possible.
Those funds have been divided by the department between programs that are ready to be operational with students this fall and will each receive $60,000. Those that are in the planning phase and will start in the fall of 2015 will each receive $20,000.
The funds provided by Maine DOE to the 12 CTE centers will support professional development for staff, summer academies for students, stipends for college professors and contracted services with Bridge Year Educational Services, the nonprofit that will be managing the programs at all locations.
For more information about Career and Technical Education in Maine, visit www.maine.gov/doe/cte.