<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1mGr8o_1Av9381i00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1mGr8o_1Av9381i00" width="1600" height="900" ><figcaption>Northern Maine Community College President Doug Binsfeld (N/A)</figcaption></figure><p>PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - Choosing a college often starts with one question: what can I afford?</p><p>For Caribou High School senior Brayden Caldwell, financial support helped make his engineering plans possible.</p><p>“I got the scholarship from winning the event from Machias Bank. That one was really really good. It kind of guides me through college,” Caldwell said.</p><p>Matthew Nonken said cost also played a role in his decision to attend the University of Maine at Presque Isle for criminal justice.</p><p>“So basically right now I have pretty much nearly a free ride at UMPI. I knew my interested that I’d do anywhere but the choice to go to UMPI was swayed by that,” Nonken said.</p><h2>Financial literacy shapes college decisions</h2><p>Even with scholarships, affordability is the deciding factor. At Caribou High School, Samantha Drost teaches financial literacy, where seniors begin weighing dreams against debt. She said that for many students, the answer to one question shaped their next steps: would community college tuition be free?</p><p>“That’s what they were waiting to hear, was whether it was going to be free or not,” Drost said.</p><p>This year, that answer came when Gov. Janet Mills signed the state budget, making Maine’s free community college program permanent for eligible students.</p><h2>Program provides path forward</h2><p>When the program was first introduced in 2020, it used one-time funding to provide up to two years of free community college for students graduating from high school through 2023. For a while, uncertainty around whether the program would continue caused some students to hesitate.</p><p>“Initially, we did see numbers go up, but then as soon as the program was being questioned, students really kind of stepped back and said, well, I’m not sure if it’ll be around permanently,” said Doug Binsfeld, Northern Maine Community College president.</p><p>Binsfeld said the program gives students more than just free tuition.</p><p>“So it allows students the opportunity to get two years worth of education, and it gives us the opportunity to have a major impact on the workforce. Because when students have access to free academic resources like our college has, it gives them the opportunity to build a foundation so that even if they do go on to a four-year school, it didn’t cost them anything,” Binsfeld said.</p><p>School leaders said applications for fall are already increasing, and they expect even more students to apply as families learn the program is here to stay.</p></div></body>

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PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - Choosing a college often starts with one question: what can I afford?. For Caribou High School senior Brayden Caldwell, financial support helped make his engineering plans possible. “I got the scholarship from winning the event from Machias Bank. That one was really really good. It...

Maine’s free community college program becomes permanent

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PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - Choosing a college often starts with one question: what can I afford?. For Caribou High School senior Brayden Caldwell, financ

Maine’s free community college program becomes permanent

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