Scores of teachers and school administrators converged on Augusta Friday to speak out against Gov. Paul LePage’s school funding plan. They say it doesn’t provide enough money overall, and they also take issue with the governor’s effort to rewrite the formula for how money is allocated to local districts.
LePage is proposing that the state provide $991 million to schools for the budget year starting in July. That’s $20 million less than this year. He is also proposing dozens of changes in how the school funding formula works.
“Any number of the 48 proposed changes to the Essential Programs and Services Funding formula would have a significantly negative impact on our public schools,” says Stan Cowan, chairman of the MSAD 60 school board in the Berwick area.
Cowan was among those who turned out at the daylong hearing before the Education Committee.
“The most devastating proposal calls for the elimination of funding allocations for school system administration,” he says.
Cowan says those additional costs for administration will force cities and towns to raise property taxes or cut school programs. LePage is also proposing changes in the way funds for special education are distributed and a reduction in support for prekindergarten programs.
Lucy Tucker, who serves on the Falmouth school board, says the overall plan would directly affect property owners there.
“Should the proposed budget pass, residents in our economically diverse community will need to support a significant local property tax increase just to keep the instructional programs intact,” she says.
And small, rural schools also say that some of the formula changes will hit them hard. Heather Wyman of Appleton says the district has struggled financially in recent years and she fears the situation could get worse under the governor’s proposal.
“Ultimately, by removing educational programming for our students we were able to pass a budget and keep our schools open,” she says. “But as funding challenges mount, I fear for the future of our small school.”
Several teachers also testified that the reduction in funding and changes in distribution would affect their ability to teach. Bangor School Superintendent Betsy Webb, president-elect of the Maine School Superintendents Association, says while there are some good elements to the budget, it doesn’t address the need to improve educational opportunities for Maine students.
“We oppose the governor’s budget, not because we dislike all that it contains, but because it does not represent a coherent or adequately funded plan for educating Maine’s students,” she says.
The Education Committee will now tackle the governor’s proposals and make recommendations to the Appropriations Committee, which has indicated that it would like to find some additional funding for schools. But that’s a discussion that will likely wait until late in the budget negotiating process.
