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By Rob Brown The Opportunity Maine program is a bold, simple and universal promise to reward hard work and a commitment to Maine with educational and economic opportunity. It is a powerful new tool to help our citizens afford a college degree and to build the skilled work force our businesses need. The program will [...]

By Anya Kamanetz Last May I went up to Augusta to testify in favor of a citizen proposal to provide a state income tax credit to all Maine college graduates who stay in the state, to offset the cost of their student loans. Now the Drum Major Institute has named Opportunity Maine, conceived by a [...]

By Ron Bancroft Thank goodness for Harold Alfond. Just when the signals for Maine’s economy were looking bleak, just when we all were in need of a boost fitting of the holiday season, along comes the Harold Alfond College Challenge. Thanks to an extraordinarily generous bequest from the late Harold Alfond, all babies born in [...]

By Steve Kolowich AUGUSTA—Two-term Maine Gov. John Baldacci is no stranger to the Bowdoin campus. In October, Baldacci spoke at the re-opening of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and on Monday the governor stopped by a government class to talk Maine politics with students. The Orient caught up with Baldacci this week in his [...]

By Ellen London Two years ago, Andrew Bossie, student-body president of the University of Southern Maine, came up with what seemed like an illusory goal, a holy grail of student initiatives: a referendum to offer debt relief for college students upon graduation. Fueled by the growing problem of college tuition expenses and the dismay of [...]

By Joel Theriault Opportunity Maine campaigners returned to USM on Oct. 1 to unveil the Opportunity Maine tax credit card, a form of identification for recent college graduates enrolled in the newly established program and a physical reminder to sign up for the tax credit in January, when it becomes effective by law. The organization [...]

By Dave Choate Fighting “brain drain” in Maine can be a pain. With a new law in place to give tax credits to college students who stay in the state to live and work after graduation, Gov. John Baldacci and Maine officials are hopeful they can give the best and brightest some incentive to stick [...]

Opportunity Maine launches today with an official ceremony at 3 p.m. at USM. Beginning in January 2008, every Maine student who graduates from a Maine college and stays in Maine to live and work and enrolls in the program will get a large tax credit to help pay their student loans each year for the [...]

By Kristi Ceccarossi The state of Vermont, which is losing its young people at an alarming rate, wants them back. So on Wednesday, a crew of state employees and headhunters boarded a bus in Montpelier headed for The Living Room, a swanky bar in Boston’s North End. There, they hosted a party for 75 young [...]