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ChampionedEducation

Establish free community college by covering the last-dollar cost of up to two years of tuition for Maine high-school classes graduating 2020-2023.

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ChampionedFact-checker reviewConfidence: 96%

Both cited sources are reachable and every quoted passage appears verbatim. The Inside Higher Ed source (reputable secondary) independently confirms all three defining elements of the promise: (1) coverage of two years of tuition at Maine community colleges for the high-school graduating classes of exactly 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023; (2) Mills initially proposing the program and signing the April 2022 supplemental budget with $20 million in one-time funding; and (3) the last-dollar structure covering costs not covered by state/federal aid or other scholarships. The Maine Governor's office source (primary) corroborates that Mills proposed and the Legislature approved the program and that 23,000+ graduates have since enrolled tuition-free. CHAMPIONED is the correct outcome because Mills acted as the executive who proposed, publicly drove, and signed her own program rather than passively casting a vote. The rating does not overstate the evidence and correctly scopes the later class-of-2024/2025 extensions and 2026 permanent enactment as beyond the original promise. No basis for downgrade to UNRATABLE.

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