John Nutting: School funding plan unfair
Bangor Daily News, February 2, 2007
(excerpt) On Jan. 17, Gov. Baldacci still couldn’t figure out why all the school districts didn’t come in under the LD1 spending caps! Our governor still cannot understand why so many rural Mainers haven’t seen any property tax relief. The answer is simple: His Essential Programs and Services school funding formula, which he pulled out all the stops to pass, is unfair to rural Maine.
Maine’s previous school-funding formulas didn’t give the 100 or more property-wealthiest districts any increase in funding, as they were already spending above the state average on a mill rate effort well below the state average. Yet Gov. Baldacci’s EPS formula puts more than $50 million into the property-wealthiest areas of the state while abandoning rural Maine. It truly is an urban formula for a rural state.
The net effect of Gov. Baldacci’s EPS formula awards districts that have the lowest mill rate effort for education even more property tax relief. Meanwhile, the rural areas of Maine that have the highest educational mill rate effort do not receive enough funding increase to cover their oil bills. Even in its second year — when the legislature froze the special education percentages — the wealthiest, most populated districts continued to gain millions.
Sadly, for the first time in Maine history, the property-wealthiest one-third of Maine school districts fund their whole school budget on five mills, while the property-poor districts now have to raise 15 mills. This inequity places rural Maine at a competitive disadvantage, a situation that the Brooking Institute report says cannot continue.
The small community of Wales was approved merely five years ago to construct a new kindergarten through eighth grade school that housed 200 students. For the first three years, the state paid for the schools operating expenses, but now under EPS the state only pays for one-quarter of the salaries for the principal, guidance counselor, nurse and other positions because the new school is "inefficient" and too small. Wales’ mill rate effort for education is now one of the highest in the state at 17.
(excerpt) On Jan. 17, Gov. Baldacci still couldn’t figure out why all the school districts didn’t come in under the LD1 spending caps! Our governor still cannot understand why so many rural Mainers haven’t seen any property tax relief. The answer is simple: His Essential Programs and Services school funding formula, which he pulled out all the stops to pass, is unfair to rural Maine.
Maine’s previous school-funding formulas didn’t give the 100 or more property-wealthiest districts any increase in funding, as they were already spending above the state average on a mill rate effort well below the state average. Yet Gov. Baldacci’s EPS formula puts more than $50 million into the property-wealthiest areas of the state while abandoning rural Maine. It truly is an urban formula for a rural state.
The net effect of Gov. Baldacci’s EPS formula awards districts that have the lowest mill rate effort for education even more property tax relief. Meanwhile, the rural areas of Maine that have the highest educational mill rate effort do not receive enough funding increase to cover their oil bills. Even in its second year — when the legislature froze the special education percentages — the wealthiest, most populated districts continued to gain millions.
Sadly, for the first time in Maine history, the property-wealthiest one-third of Maine school districts fund their whole school budget on five mills, while the property-poor districts now have to raise 15 mills. This inequity places rural Maine at a competitive disadvantage, a situation that the Brooking Institute report says cannot continue.
The small community of Wales was approved merely five years ago to construct a new kindergarten through eighth grade school that housed 200 students. For the first three years, the state paid for the schools operating expenses, but now under EPS the state only pays for one-quarter of the salaries for the principal, guidance counselor, nurse and other positions because the new school is "inefficient" and too small. Wales’ mill rate effort for education is now one of the highest in the state at 17.
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