“We have been too long content with the doubtful compliment that Maine is a good state to go from.’ She must be made a good state to come to, and stay in. We want to induce our young men and women to remain among us, and better themselves and us and the state by so doing.”

– Gov. Joshua Chamberlain, inaugural address, 1867

A new study released this month debunks the long-held view in Maine that if we just offered our young citizens a better education, they would stay here and build a stronger and more prosperous Maine with their talents and ambition.

Joshua Chamberlain knew better in 1867 when he made the inextricable link between good jobs and a good life in Maine. He implied that Maine’s famous quality of life is a “doubtful compliment” and goes on in his first inaugural speech to argue that the inducement to keep young people in Maine must be good-paying jobs.

In other words, Maine needed more than its rugged beauty to offer its citizens a good quality of life. It still does: Maine remains one of the poorest states in the union and, thus, among the very highest taxed as a percentage of our income.

The new study by the Finance Authority of Maine harks back to Chamberlain when it concludes that, “only by expanding career opportunities will we be capable of turning the so-called Brain Drain’ into a Brain Gain.'”

The study sadly reveals that not much has changed since 1867: College-educated Mainers who stay in the state after earning their degrees say they “sacrifice” by accepting lower wages and benefits in exchange for living near their families and enjoying the recreational opportunities that are so much a part of the Maine mystique.

The study also shows that the people who put higher pay and better benefits above all else – an alternate definition of “quality of life” – are the ones who don’t stay in Maine or come back to Maine after college. They include 69 percent of the “best and brightest” students and 66 percent of new graduates who go into the business or technology fields.

“Find me a job and I’ll move back in a second,” said one of the nearly 1,800 study participants.

Until now, Maine policymakers have long focused on improving education as the primary way to cure the state’s historic economic malaise and keep kids in Maine. But that view ignores two crucial points: A college education does little good without jobs that require college educations – and pay college-education wages; and, as importantly, half of Maine’s high school graduates don’t go to college.

It is true that if you build something, such as universities and colleges, people will come. But six generations after Chamberlain, it remains truer that if you build economic opportunities, even more people will come. And stay.