If Gov. Baldacci gets his way, every child born in Maine next year will start life off with a $50 gift from the state, a jump-start on a college savings account.

For parents of college students, $50 might not sound like meaningful assistance. With tuition costs soaring – and projected to go even higher – the grant won’t go very far in actually offsetting costs.

But that’s not the same thing as saying the idea doesn’t have merit. It does, for several reasons.

Several investment companies can provide a snapshot analysis, using current education costs, to predict what college will cost for a child born today. For new parents, struggling to pay for diapers, day care and the raft of other expenses that come along with having a baby, the figure can be shocking. Fidelity.com’s college planner calculator estimates tuition for a four-year degree, with room and board, at a state school at more than $144,000.

Fifty dollars, even with 18 years to grow, doesn’t put a dent in that, from a financial standpoint.

But it does open a conversation about college from baby’s first day. Parents will know about the grant and will hopefully be inspired to add their own contributions. If their combined income is less than $54,500 in 2006, they also qualify for a $200 state match in a college savings plan if they contribute just $50 of their own. Taken together, that’s a college savings account with $300.

Over time, that money can grow.

Using a conservative estimate, a $50 contribution in a 529 college savings mutual fund, which under current federal tax laws grows tax-free, can increase to $90. Being generous and assuming a 10 percent annual return, it becomes more than $250. At today’s textbook prices, that’s enough to buy “An Introduction to General, Organic and Biological Chemistry,” “Introduction to Sociology” and “Media & Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media.” It’s not a year at Harvard, but it’s one less bill for a new student.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 14,000 children are born in Maine each year. That puts the cost of the grant program at about $700,000 annually. The money wouldn’t come from the General Fund, but instead would be generated by the administrative fees from the state’s NextGen College Investing Plan, which is administered by the Finance Authority of Maine.

There is a legitimate question about whether that $700,000 could be better spent on appropriately funding Maine’s community college and university system or providing need-based scholarships to more students, but the intent of the grant program is good.

Too many kids in Maine don’t consider college an option. That’s a waste. For the family that’s willing to save and work hard – and in many cases take out loans – college is attainable. The $50 grant is a beginning, a small step in the right direction. It’s an introduction to the possibilities and promise of a college education.