PORTLAND (AP) – As Maine officials try to boost college enrollments, a Bush administration proposal threatens to drain away 52 percent of the schools’ federal funding for student-aid programs.

The impact would be worse within the seven-campus state university system, which stands to lose 66 percent of its federal funding for work-study jobs, Perkins loans and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants.

With Maine ranking 33rd in the nation in the percentage of high school seniors who sign up for college, the state’s trying to boost enrollments.

“Suffice it to say that these cuts would be significant,” said John Beacon, dean of enrollment management at the University of Maine. “Some students at the low end of the scale are going to determine for themselves that they cannot attend the university.”

At issue is $1.8 billion in federal campus-based aid money. The administration wants to reallocate the money so states getting disproportionately smaller pieces of the pie will get more.

Supporters say the proposal would distribute available funds more equitably and replace a 20-year-old formula.

But if proposed changes win congressional approval, Maine colleges would lose $8.2 million a year.

Maine and the other New England states stand to take the hardest hits if the changes are approved, because their schools now receive more aid per student than schools in other parts of the country.

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators supports the administration’s proposal, which would distribute aid funds by 2009 on the basis of each college’s number of eligible low-income students.

AP-ES-03-28-04 1607EST