PORTLAND (AP) – A Maine lawmaker is drafting legislation that would create a program for the state to help pay off college loans for students to entice them to stay in Maine.

House Majority Leader Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, said it’s important to keep college graduates in Maine because educated workers spur economic development.

Under his plan, the state would pay off as much as half of a college loan amount for qualified students, up to a maximum payout of $15,000. Qualified applicants must work in Maine for at least four years after earning a four-year college degree, and they must be graduates of a Maine high school or a Maine college.

“My belief is that talent and creativity create prosperity,” said Cummings, who wants to pay for the program with a $50 million bond.

Maine’s working age population has the highest percentage of high school graduates in New England. But only 37 percent of Maine workers hold some kind of college degree, the lowest percentage in New England.

The average for the six-state region is 45 percent.

Cummings’ idea has support from some officials in higher education.

Henry Bourgeois, director of the Maine Compact for Higher Education, said it would take another 40,000 degree-holders to bring Maine up to the New England average.

“If we are going to keep competitive in the knowledge-based economy, we need a work force that is skilled and educated,” he said. “Our competition is in New England, and currently we don’t compete very well.”

Maine and 42 other states already have programs that link financial aid to employment, mainly in fields in which there are labor shortages. Maine now spends about $200,000 a year on a loan forgiveness program for teachers who work in Maine, and about $1 million on another program for dentists who meet certain criteria.

Ron Milliken, director of student aid at the University of Maine Farmington, noted that Cummings’ proposal is different from other programs designed to give low-income students access to college. He wonders how Mainers might view a program that gives tax dollars to people who might have incomes twice the state average.

“It might not appear socially equitable from a social justice point of view,” he said. “But it might serve to boost some of the economic needs of the region at that moment.”

Cummings said participants at a summit on youth migration last June, which involved 300 people, many between the age of 20 and 34, were enthusiastic about the idea.

“We are going by what Maine youth are telling us would be helpful to them,” he said.