Candidates Air Education Goals at UM Forum
By Jeff Tuttle
Three of the top four contenders for the Blaine House outlined how they would send more Maine kids to college during a Thursday forum at the University of Maine in Orono.
LaMarche renewed her proposal from earlier in the campaign for opening a medical school in the Bangor area and on Thursday unveiled her plan to impose a 1 percent tax on bottled water companies to help fund higher education. She said the tax is similar to that paid by companies that extract oil from Alaska. |
Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, state Rep. Barbara Merrill, an independent, and Pat LaMarche of the Maine Green Independent Party all described different paths toward that goal at the afternoon forum hosted by the Maine Compact for Higher Education.
The forum marked the first time the candidates for governor faced off in a debate format leading into the November general election....
Maine now falls below the New England average in the percentage of adults with a college degree. About 36 percent of Mainers have either an associate or bachelor's degree, compared with the New England average of 47 percent.
"We're not producing what employers want," LaMarche, of Yarmouth, told the crowd. "We're not producing enough educated young people."
LaMarche renewed her proposal from earlier in the campaign for opening a medical school in the Bangor area and on Thursday unveiled her plan to impose a 1 percent tax on bottled water companies to help fund higher education. She said the tax is similar to that paid by companies that extract oil from Alaska.
