Administrators blast Baldacci comments

Kennebec Journal, January 19, 2007

(excerpt) Area school officials on Thursday rejected the governor's assertions that excessive education spending was cheating property owners out of state dollars.

Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday decried spending practices among local school administrative units as "terrible" and "unacceptable" after a report showed 81 percent of them spending more money than the amount allowed under a state formula.

Called Essential Programs and Services, the formula mandates how much schools should spend in certain areas. The formula is contained in a 2005 state law known as Legislative Document 1, or LD 1, and, coupled with increased state education spending, was said to have been aimed at putting more dollars back into the hands of local taxpayers.

Baldacci's criticism of school district spending was a cheap political stunt and an attempt to divert attention from his own failures, according to Messalonskee School Superintendent Jim Morse.

"I think Governor Baldacci has chosen in his second term to make school systems his whipping boy for the state's lack of spine to address tax reform at the state level," he said. "I think the governor's position is outrageous."

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