June 7, 2004
Plugging the brain drain | A new initiative hopes to reverse the outflow of Maine's young adults
By Taylor Smith
Gov. John Baldacci in his January 2003 inaugural address noted a number of serious problems in Maine: out-of-date tax systems, ballooning health care costs and a particularly nasty budget deficit. But one issue of particular concern for the incoming governor was the increasing migration of young people out of Maine. Coupled with a fast-growing population of older citizens, the exodus of the state's young people threatened to make Maine, according to Baldacci, "a graying state sapped of the vitality, the spirit and entrepreneur abilities that the ambitions of youth provide."
In response to that bleak scenario, Baldacci's administration has come up with an initiative it calls Realize!Maine. At the moment, the initiative consists largely of a website, www.realizemaine.org, full of testimonials by young people gushing about the Pine Tree State, plus online forums and links to employment and education websites. Realize!Maine will take another step forward on June 19, when the Governor's Summit will gather an estimated 300 young people at the University of Maine's Orono campus to discuss how to make Maine an attractive place ˆ socially, economically and professionally ˆ for young adults between the ages of 20 and 34.
Afterwards, delegates will return to their areas of Maine to discuss relevant regional issues. "It's tantalizing to think that we can all come together and fix the problem, but it's not going to happen that way because some of these issues are common to certain areas of Maine," says Daryl Fort, Maine's director of community development and Baldacci's point man for Realize! Maine.
Beyond those ongoing regional discussions, it's unclear how the administration plans to deal with the problem of youth migration. One plan, however, seems poised to tackle the issue of Maine's weak college enrollment: The Maine Compact for Higher Education, a joint initiative by the Maine Development Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation, echoes a number of other states' programs offering reduced or free college tuition to eligible students. The plan calls for $43 million annually in state funding. It's an admittedly rich price tag, but Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey says the compact is among the governor's top priorities, despite the state's dire fiscal status.
But is the youth migration picture really as bad as Baldacci's address made it seem in the first place? According to research by the Maine State Planning Office, the answer is no ˆ though the picture is cluttered with complexities about Maine's changing demographics.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the decline of young people in Maine was among the highest in the nation during the 1990s, when the state lost nearly 64,000 people aged 20-34. Those numbers were inflated, however, by the closing of Limestone's Loring Airforce Base in 1994 and cutbacks during the 1990s at the Brunswick Naval Air Station, both of which resulted in many thousands of young people leaving the state. Also, much of the loss is attributed to a segment of the population that simply grew older during that time period.
Ashley Benedict, 31, is one of the people who left Maine in the 90s, moving to Manhattan in 1997 after finishing her communications studies at the University of Southern Maine at Portland. She and her husband, Chad, who met while students at Cony High School in Augusta, made the move after he was unable to find a bachelor's degree program in architecture in Maine (one is now offered at University of Maine at Augusta). Ashley landed a job at ESPN Television Networks as a research analyst, and after six years the couple felt the time was right to move back to Maine.
Tapped by Baldacci's office to act as a media consultant for Realize!Maine, Ashley Benedict feels it's important that migration patterns like hers not be discouraged. "I don't want the message to be 'don't leave,'" she says, "but 'go ahead and leave, but do come back.'"
The college cost problem
By returning, Benedict was part of another significant migration trend in Maine, as the downward slide in the population of young people in the 1990s seems to have reversed itself in the beginning of this decade: From 2000 to 2002, Maine saw a net annual inflow of 3,390 people aged 18-34. Whether that trend will continue is anyone's guess, however, as everything from economic to cultural factors play a part in shifting population demographics among this age group.
In addition, despite the heavy out-of-state migration of youths during the 1990s, statistical evidence shows that Maine still wasn't too bad off when matched up with the rest of the country. An April report from the State Planning Office notes that Maine's loss of young adult population between 1995 and 2000 hovers near the national average.
But other research prepared for Realize!Maine points to a specific segment of the state's youth population that is skewing the results: A recent study by the Muskie School of Public Policy's Charles Colgan found that the largest group of people leaving Maine is college-aged youth drawn by educational opportunities elsewhere. The problem of youth migration, according to Colgan, wouldn't seem so bad if the state wasn't a huge net exporter of college-age students, like Benedict and her husband.
One reason, according to Colgan, is relatively high tuition at the state's public universities compared to the rest of the country. He notes that in-state tuition at Maine's public universities ˆ while relatively low compared to their New England counterparts ˆ is comparable to out-of-state tuition in many other areas of the country. But Colgan also points to other reasons why Maine's college-aged youth are leaving the state: "It's a combination of young people wanting to leave the nest and the larger array of [educational] choices outside of Maine," he says.
Realize!Maine's heady ambition is to make Maine "a viable, preferred option for youth," by promoting the state's "vibrant communities" and "growing economy." However, what's not said is how the initiative plans to achieve this goal ˆ most importantly, how Maine will become a viable option. Research points to the significant role the creation of jobs will play in maintaining ˆ and growing ˆ the state's youth population. But the influx of companies into Maine has been slow at best, and many young job-seekers are forced to create their own opportunities.
Now that she's back in Maine, Ashley Benedict tapped her ESPN contacts to start a freelance business called Big Picture Media Consulting. She's built a roster of clients including VH1 and Broadway Video (founded by "Saturday Night Live" honcho Lorne Michaels) and has tailored her schedule to accommodate her two young children.
Benedict also has reconnected with a childhood friend and fellow Realize!Maine volunteer, Kristin Chase Duffy, who left the high-tech industry in 2002 to return to Maine. The pair are teaming up to offer a combination of media consulting and marketing services to Farmingdale-based ACES Design ˆ a firm that moved from San Francisco thanks to its co-owner, Erin Skehan, a former classmate of Benedict's at Cony High School.
When Duffy told her colleagues she was returning to Maine, they worried that her career opportunities wouldn't be as strong. Benedict heard the same dour forecasts. "I knew that moving back to Maine meant creating my own opportunities," she says. "But I'm better off for having left because of the experiences I've had, and now I've got more to offer my community since coming back to Maine."
In response to that bleak scenario, Baldacci's administration has come up with an initiative it calls Realize!Maine. At the moment, the initiative consists largely of a website, www.realizemaine.org, full of testimonials by young people gushing about the Pine Tree State, plus online forums and links to employment and education websites. Realize!Maine will take another step forward on June 19, when the Governor's Summit will gather an estimated 300 young people at the University of Maine's Orono campus to discuss how to make Maine an attractive place ˆ socially, economically and professionally ˆ for young adults between the ages of 20 and 34.
Afterwards, delegates will return to their areas of Maine to discuss relevant regional issues. "It's tantalizing to think that we can all come together and fix the problem, but it's not going to happen that way because some of these issues are common to certain areas of Maine," says Daryl Fort, Maine's director of community development and Baldacci's point man for Realize! Maine.
Beyond those ongoing regional discussions, it's unclear how the administration plans to deal with the problem of youth migration. One plan, however, seems poised to tackle the issue of Maine's weak college enrollment: The Maine Compact for Higher Education, a joint initiative by the Maine Development Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation, echoes a number of other states' programs offering reduced or free college tuition to eligible students. The plan calls for $43 million annually in state funding. It's an admittedly rich price tag, but Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey says the compact is among the governor's top priorities, despite the state's dire fiscal status.
But is the youth migration picture really as bad as Baldacci's address made it seem in the first place? According to research by the Maine State Planning Office, the answer is no ˆ though the picture is cluttered with complexities about Maine's changing demographics.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the decline of young people in Maine was among the highest in the nation during the 1990s, when the state lost nearly 64,000 people aged 20-34. Those numbers were inflated, however, by the closing of Limestone's Loring Airforce Base in 1994 and cutbacks during the 1990s at the Brunswick Naval Air Station, both of which resulted in many thousands of young people leaving the state. Also, much of the loss is attributed to a segment of the population that simply grew older during that time period.
Ashley Benedict, 31, is one of the people who left Maine in the 90s, moving to Manhattan in 1997 after finishing her communications studies at the University of Southern Maine at Portland. She and her husband, Chad, who met while students at Cony High School in Augusta, made the move after he was unable to find a bachelor's degree program in architecture in Maine (one is now offered at University of Maine at Augusta). Ashley landed a job at ESPN Television Networks as a research analyst, and after six years the couple felt the time was right to move back to Maine.
Tapped by Baldacci's office to act as a media consultant for Realize!Maine, Ashley Benedict feels it's important that migration patterns like hers not be discouraged. "I don't want the message to be 'don't leave,'" she says, "but 'go ahead and leave, but do come back.'"
The college cost problem
By returning, Benedict was part of another significant migration trend in Maine, as the downward slide in the population of young people in the 1990s seems to have reversed itself in the beginning of this decade: From 2000 to 2002, Maine saw a net annual inflow of 3,390 people aged 18-34. Whether that trend will continue is anyone's guess, however, as everything from economic to cultural factors play a part in shifting population demographics among this age group.
In addition, despite the heavy out-of-state migration of youths during the 1990s, statistical evidence shows that Maine still wasn't too bad off when matched up with the rest of the country. An April report from the State Planning Office notes that Maine's loss of young adult population between 1995 and 2000 hovers near the national average.
But other research prepared for Realize!Maine points to a specific segment of the state's youth population that is skewing the results: A recent study by the Muskie School of Public Policy's Charles Colgan found that the largest group of people leaving Maine is college-aged youth drawn by educational opportunities elsewhere. The problem of youth migration, according to Colgan, wouldn't seem so bad if the state wasn't a huge net exporter of college-age students, like Benedict and her husband.
One reason, according to Colgan, is relatively high tuition at the state's public universities compared to the rest of the country. He notes that in-state tuition at Maine's public universities ˆ while relatively low compared to their New England counterparts ˆ is comparable to out-of-state tuition in many other areas of the country. But Colgan also points to other reasons why Maine's college-aged youth are leaving the state: "It's a combination of young people wanting to leave the nest and the larger array of [educational] choices outside of Maine," he says.
Realize!Maine's heady ambition is to make Maine "a viable, preferred option for youth," by promoting the state's "vibrant communities" and "growing economy." However, what's not said is how the initiative plans to achieve this goal ˆ most importantly, how Maine will become a viable option. Research points to the significant role the creation of jobs will play in maintaining ˆ and growing ˆ the state's youth population. But the influx of companies into Maine has been slow at best, and many young job-seekers are forced to create their own opportunities.
Now that she's back in Maine, Ashley Benedict tapped her ESPN contacts to start a freelance business called Big Picture Media Consulting. She's built a roster of clients including VH1 and Broadway Video (founded by "Saturday Night Live" honcho Lorne Michaels) and has tailored her schedule to accommodate her two young children.
Benedict also has reconnected with a childhood friend and fellow Realize!Maine volunteer, Kristin Chase Duffy, who left the high-tech industry in 2002 to return to Maine. The pair are teaming up to offer a combination of media consulting and marketing services to Farmingdale-based ACES Design ˆ a firm that moved from San Francisco thanks to its co-owner, Erin Skehan, a former classmate of Benedict's at Cony High School.
When Duffy told her colleagues she was returning to Maine, they worried that her career opportunities wouldn't be as strong. Benedict heard the same dour forecasts. "I knew that moving back to Maine meant creating my own opportunities," she says. "But I'm better off for having left because of the experiences I've had, and now I've got more to offer my community since coming back to Maine."
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