Student-age populations are shrinking, schools are being shut down and colleges are facing unique challenges. Education is changing across the state, and central Maine is no stranger to the impacts.

While experts forecast further school closures and consolidations, curriculums and educational priorities are also expected to change in central Maine and statewide.

“I’m guessing that we’re going to see more and more communities really having these hard questions, confronting these hard questions about should we keep our schools open or not?” Mara Tieken, a professor of education at Bates College in Lewiston, said.

While Maine’s overall population is increasing, the state’s student-age population is expected to decrease by 9% between 2022 and 2032, according to a 2025 report by the state’s economist. The birthrate has also been steadily decreasing, contributing to lower numbers of school-age children.

From 2016 to 2025, school enrollment decreased 5.57% in Kennebec County and 14.45% in Somerset County.

Shrinking populations have resulted in school closures across the state, with 45 closing between 2016 and 2025, 19 for lack of need and the remaining 26 replaced by new buildings.

In central Maine, several schools have closed, including the Teresa C. Hamlin School in Randolph in 2018 due to low enrollment, Albion Elementary School in 2025, which was consolidated into a new building and Monmouth Middle and Henry L. Cottrell Elementary schools in 2020, which were also consolidated into one school.

Tieken, whose research focuses on rural schools, said school closures can have far-reaching impacts on students and the community as a whole.

“When a student goes through a closure, what can sometimes happen is, it’s a traumatic experience,” Tieken said. 
”That then might lead to less attachment to school, decreased feelings of being successful in school and I could see then how that would have a long-term impact on things like college-going.”

Tieken said school closures can result in longer bus rides for students, sometimes preventing them from participating in after-school activities because their parents don’t have enough time to drive to pick them up.

Jennifer Chase, assistant director of the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation at University of Southern Maine, said in her experiences speaking with rural students facing school closures, they overwhelmingly say they would prefer the opportunities that come with a new or consolidated school rather than staying at one with fewer resources or funding.

“They see the need for themselves to gain more opportunities,” Chase said. “These kinds of consolidating schools enable them to have that just full regular high school experience that they’re looking for with a variety of opportunities.”

School closures can also cause families to reconsider staying in or moving to that area, Tieken said, continuing the decrease of student-age populations. Additionally, businesses and new industries are less likely to open in a community with no school.

“Maine is a rural state, and its rural identity is really, really important to how the state defines itself,” Tieken said. “So I’d love to be able to see more coordinated economic and educational policy, so that maybe we invest more in bringing businesses to small rural communities and keeping those rural schools open.”

Without that effort, Tieken worries school closures are going to continue in Maine.

Inside the classroom, however, there is a big push across the state to incorporate more experiential hands-on learning in the future, according to Chase. Chase is part of USM’s Maine Education 2050 project focused on researching and discussing the future of education in Maine.

She said parents, teachers and students alike want to see more practical skills taught in classrooms that students will need as adults. Additionally, exposing students to multiple career pathways early on is a key part of preparing them for the future.

“Kids, especially in the more rural areas, will say ‘There are no opportunities from here, and the fact is, there are opportunities. There are people who are living there and working there and making careers and building businesses,” Chase said. “I think that people not only want students to hear what options they have locally, but also they want them to dream big and go out and do great things in the wider world as well.”

Now when students graduate in Maine, and across the country, they face an uncertain future with rising college tuition costs and uncertain job markets.

“Especially in rural communities, trying to ask students and families to think about how a college degree might fit into their future might be a bit of a reach if there’s not a lot of jobs requiring a college degree in their home community,” Tieken said. “We’re kind of living in this moment of real college doubt.”

Tieken noted, however, that research still shows that a college degree results in higher wages and greater employment stability.

Chloe Teboe, director of communications for the Maine Department of Education, said enrollment in career and technical education programs has increased by over 20%, with nearly 11,500 enrollments in more than 90 unique career and technical education programs statewide.

Part of this trend is likely a result of Gov. Janet Mills’ focus on expanding those programs across the state, Teboe said. Over $20 million of federal funding from the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan has gone toward career and technical education programs, and the Governor’s Free Community College initiative has resulted in about 23,000 students enrolling tuition-free in Maine community colleges to pursue career-related education.

Chase also said, in the past year alone, there has been a shift in both students and parents considering what types of careers are not at risk of replacement by artificial intelligence.

When asking students across the state where they see themselves in 10 years, Chase said there has been a noticeable trend of students who want to pursue careers in healthcare. Many students also expressed interest in becoming entrepreneurs and running their own businesses.

“I think that’s kids needing that support and finding out who they are and what they want out of life,” Chase said. “For some kids it means going out there and taking a risk and starting their own business and being their own boss. And other kids, that’s not any part of what they would ever be interested in, and that’s great too, because we need both.”