Two onging stories we’ve had in your Daily newspaper over the last several months have been the recent crackdowns on underage drinking in the Portland area, as well as the issue of who’s going to college and how its paid for.

(Feel free to make your own college and underage drinking jokes.)

In a study released yesterday, the state got some hard news - t here are a lot of high school seniors that want to go to college, but just can’t get there.

According to the study from the George J. Mitchell Scholarship Institute, the number of students wanting to go to college has increased from 64 percent in 2001 to 70 percent in 2005.

But during that time, the number of students actually enrolling has dropped from 62 percent to 57 percent in 2006.

There are plenty of reasons as to why this is happening, but I don’t know if I’d agree with how Sanford’s superintendent characterized it:

"'College costs are huge, and that is a problem,' said John Turcotte, superintendent in Sanford.

He also blamed a breakdown in the family structure.

'There never was any question in my family that I was going to
college. It was an issue at the dinner table every night,' he said.

Today, he said, parents are not setting those same standards.

'By the time (students) are seniors in high school, they are way
too unplugged from their families and are looking to make
money quickly to be on their own, so even a low-paying ...
entry-level job is attractive to them,' he said."

College costs is one thing, but saying families aren’t doing enough, or that kids don’t have enough motivation?

In my experience kids are a lot smarter, and practical than people often give them credit for. If they want to go into a trade and make money after college, then they do. If they want to go to college they try their best to find a way.

But as this study shows there are some barriers there. The state is going to be looking into ending the “tracking” system in high school, where certain students are placed in courses based on how they do in general studies, college prep or vocational work.

Earlier this year, the state Legislature passed a bill that will require all high school seniors to at least fill out an application for college or military service.
At the same time, the recently passed Opportunity Maine program – which will provide tax credits to repay student loan costs beginning in 2008 – may also provide some incentive.

In other news, anyone over 21 around Portland has seen the result of the recent bar stings lately – everyone asks to see your ID now, no matter how often they may see you. I could not begin to count the number of times I go to places like the White Heart, Genos, Amigos, or Rosies, and you get carded at all of them. On top of that, if you’re buying a six-pack at any convenience store, better have the drivers license.

The reason, store owners say, is they don’t want to be responsible for an accident or death from a drunken teen.

At the same time dealing with all the fines handed down after getting busted begins to add up for these businesses.

It seems to be working:

"Portland's first sweeps, last winter, covered 35 bars and convenience stores and turned up 20 that sold alcohol to an underage volunteer, a 57 percent failure rate.

In subsequent checks, 15 of 42 sold to minors, then 10 of 36.

The message got out, and a sweep of 33 businesses in April produced only three violations.

Police were pleased with the progress, but the most recent check, on June 8, led to seven violations at the 19 businesses that were checked."

Putting a real stop on underage drinking probably isn’t going to be easy – at least until we get at why people under 21 want to drink – but with the bars and convenience stores locking things down, it at least makes it harder to get those cases of hard lemonade.

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