Maine students are well-prepared for higher education. They start – and finish – college in decent numbers compared to the rest of the nation.

But many Mainers have a hard time paying for school and the state hasn’t done enough to help them out, a national group says.

It has given Maine an F for affordability.

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a nonprofit group based in California and Washington, D.C., today releases Measuring Up 2004, a biennial state-by-state report card on higher education. Maine received high marks for preparing students for college, for college attendance, for graduation and for the benefits that higher education brings to the community.

But for the third time since 2000, Maine failed to make college affordable.

According to the report, Maine’s poorest families – those who earn just under $10,600 a year – would need to dedicate 26 percent of their income to afford tuition at the least costly colleges in the state. In comparison, California’s poorest families would need to dedicate just 4 percent to pay for college there.

“We’re not even talking about room and board and other expenses,” said Mikyung Ryu, senior policy analyst for the center. “Twenty-six percent of income? I think that says it all.”

To calculate affordability, Ryu said, the center looked at state funding, the amount of financial aid available and the tuition and fees students must pay at both public and private schools. In Maine, lawmakers earmarked just 6 percent of its budget to higher education in 1990, the report said. That had fallen to 4 percent by 2003. And financial aid failed to keep up with rising college prices.

“It’s not surprising that Maine didn’t do well on the affordability issue,” said University of Maine System spokesman John Diamond.

In the last 14 years, the state has cut or flattened funding for Maine universities, he said. With rising costs and limited state help, the system raised tuition an average 7.2 percent this year.

Diamond called affordability a “significant problem.”

Other education officials in Maine agreed. But they also questioned the report.

Nationally, grades varied widely for preparation, participation, completion and benefits. But 36 states received an F for affordability. Ten states received a D. California got the only B.

Although he hadn’t seen this year’s report, Central Maine Community College President Scott Knapp said that since most of the nation failed for affordability, “I have a question about the standard they’ve set here, whether it’s an appropriate standard.”

For some, questions also rose about the figures the center used to calculate affordability. In one chart, the report said a family making just under $10,600 would have to pay an average of $7,500 a year for tuition, fees, room and board at a community college, including financial aid.

But tuition, fees, room and board at Central Maine Community College, where tuition is the same as other Maine community colleges and room and board is about average, a full-time student would pay about $8,300 without any financial aid. Low-income students could expect to get substantial financial help from both state and federal programs, officials said. And most community college students commute, cutting the price to less than $3,000 a year even without aid.

“The whole thing is misleading,” Knapp said.

The center said its figures are based on data supplied to the federal government by the colleges.

“This is the most reliable, best estimate we can come up with,” Ryu said.

Although the report offers no solutions to Maine’s problem, some officials say they’ve been working on answers. Gov. John Baldacci has created an education task force to examine college attendance, affordability and other education issues. Their recommendations are due in January.

University of Maine System Chancellor Joseph Westphal has proposed reorganizing the university system to make it more efficient. The Board of Trustees will vote on that plan Monday.

The Community College System has frozen its tuition at $68 a credit hour for the last six years to make it a more affordable option.

Still, said Community College System spokeswoman Alice Kirkpatrick, “I think it’s something we still need to keep pressing on and working on.”