BANGOR — To give more Maine students a better shot at starting — and finishing — their college educations, the state should invest nearly $27 million more per year in its student financial aid program, a commission of lawmakers and college officials is recommending.

The additional funding would go to the Maine State Grant Program, boosting scholarship awards from $1,000 to $2,500 for students most in need — those with zero expected family contribution. An additional $4 million would go to the Maine Community College System to allow it to create more work study opportunities and hire “navigation” employees to help students efficiently and effectively chart their academic programs.

The Commission to Study College Affordability and College Completion, a 13-member panel of higher education leaders and lawmakers assembled by the 126th Maine Legislature, has been meeting since July. The group completed its report in late 2014 and presented findings and recommendations to the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee last week.

“For too many Mainers, the cost of college has become an obstacle that prevents too many young people from going to college and prevents even more from being able to stay in college,” Democratic Sen. Rebecca Millett of Cape Elizabeth, chairwoman of the commission, said in a news release. “For those who do make it through to earn a degree, many are saddled with oppressive college debt that delays them from doing things like getting married, buying a car or owning their own home.”

Coming up with this sort of money could be a challenge for a state government that faces a tight budget, but investment will be necessary to make a difference in college affordability, attraction and retention, commission officials say.

Some of the $31 million recommended in the commission’s report, which was completed in December, already has been accounted for in Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed 2016-2017 budget. For example, the governor’s proposal adds another $10 million into the coffers of the Finance Authority of Maine, which administers the Maine State Grant Program scholarship. That’s still about $17 million short of what the affordability commission is recommending for that program.

In the past two years, the grant program has received about $10.7 million in annual funding, supporting scholarships for more than 10,000 Maine students per year, according to FAME.

The Maine State Grant Program is the state’s basic, need-based undergraduate grant program. Students apply for the grants through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The high-water mark for the grants was in fiscal year 2007, when they reached $1,500. However, dwindling funding and inflation rates have culled the impact of these grants in recent years. Now, FAME awards just $1,000 per year through the program. For students in some majors, that barely covers the cost of books.

The last time awards from the program were that low was in 1992, according to FAME. The commission found that for a grant to carry the same buying power as it did in 1992, it would need to be increased to $2,500, so that’s what it is proposing.

For an applicant with zero expected family contribution, a student is eligible for $2,500 in aid. The grant amount would increase by $250 for each year it’s awarded to encourage students to continue attending college. Applicants with some expected family contribution are eligible for up to $1,500 in aid, again increasing by $250 in each subsequent year awarded to the student.

“While the commission is quite aware of the financial magnitude of this [$27 million funding increase] recommendation, it believes that the corresponding issues of college affordability more than justify the additional funding and, in fact, is long overdue,” the commission writes in its report.

The commission projects that this funding hike would decrease the college affordability gap, or an average student’s unmet financial need, for a four-year UMS degree from $17,000 to less than $10,000.

The commission’s report also urges the state to increase funding for universities and colleges.

The University of Maine System’s state allocation has held flat for the past three years, but the governor’s proposed biennial budget increases funding over two years by 3.6 percent, to $182.6 million by fiscal year 2017. The system is planning a major administrative restructuring in hopes of preventing what’s projected to be a $90 million budget deficit by 2020.

The governor’s proposal also increases Maine Maritime Academy’s two-year general fund appropriation 4.76 percent, or about $807,000, to a total of $17.8 million.

There was no such increase included in the governor’s budget for the Maine Community College System. Some lawmakers are pushing to change that by including a matching increase to the community college system’s allocation in the biennial budget.

The commission calls on the Legislature to include about $3.8 million in additional funding for community colleges, about half of which would go toward hiring 27 “college navigators,” on-campus guidance counselors who help students deal with campus life and plan a course to their degree. The other half would go toward expanding student work study opportunities.

Across Maine’s public, four-year universities, just 53 percent of students who started their freshman year in the fall of 2007 graduated within six years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

The commission made several other recommendations, ranging from having higher education institutions publish average class fees by course of study to acknowledging the importance of K-12 education in preparing students academically for college.

To see the full report and accompanying materials, visit maine.gov/legis/opla/collegeaffordability.htm.

The Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs will hold a work session on the commission’s findings and proposed changes in coming weeks.