Maine school recruits Chinese students

MILLINOCKET, Maine -- Maine is 7,000 miles and a world away from China, but that's not stopping a school superintendent from recruiting Chinese students to attend public high school in this remote mill town.

Faced with declining enrollments and shrinking revenues, school districts from Maine to California are seeking out students from overseas to attend their schools. At least two public schools in Maine have 10 tuition-paying Chinese students this year, and the superintendent in Millinocket is the latest to set his sights on China.

Next fall, Millinocket Superintendent Ken Smith hopes to have at least 60 Chinese students, each paying $13,000 in tuition and another $11,000 for room and board, at Stearns High School. Stearns at one time had close to 700 students, but enrollment has been falling and is down to 200.

The first-year batch is being signed up, Smith said. Local students will benefit by exposure to those from abroad, and the Chinese will gain from being immersed in the local culture, he said.

When Smith went on a recruiting trip to Shanghai, Beijing and Fuzhou last fall, students there had never heard of Maine. But they knew they wanted to enhance their chances of going to an American university. "They didn't know where Maine was, but they knew where Harvard was," Smith said.

Students coming from China's cities of tens of millions of people could be forgiven if they experience culture shock in a place like northern Maine.

Located at the gateway to the North Woods, Millinocket has fewer than 5,000 people, no public transportation and nearly 8 feet of snowfall each year. The town is more than 98 percent white. The nearest mall or movie theater is more than an hour away.