Percentages: Low, Low, High, So-So, High! Or Maybe Not!

A new report from the Rockefeller Institute, "The States and Their Community Colleges", compares community colleges' share of total higher education enrollments, growth in enrollments, and costs state by state.

"Community colleges" are two-year public colleges, so in Maine, both the community colleges as well as the technical colleges are included. The figures used are from 2005 and earlier, with one exception. "FTE" stands for full-time equivalent student. In the comparisons below, Maine's rank among the states is in parentheses following the percentage or number expressed.

Maine two-year public colleges enroll 16% (36) of all FTEs in higher education, with only 1.19% (45) of the over-18 population enrolled (full-time or part-time) in two-year public colleges.

Maine two-year public colleges experienced a 40.5% (2) FTE enrollment increase from 2000 to 2005. This exceeds the growth in FTEs in four-year public institutions by 32.1% (23).

Finally, for 2006-2007, the average total tuition and fees for Maine two-year public colleges was $3058 (12), 47% of that of the four-year public colleges.

Conclusions? We thought you might have some thoughts!