Baldacci rejects bid to cut aid to schools

Portland Press Herald, February 13, 2008

(excerpt) Gov. John Baldacci has rejected an Education Department proposal to cut $36.8 million from next year's budget for state aid to schools.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron submitted the proposal Monday to the Bureau of the Budget because Baldacci and the Legislature are scrambling to find new ways to trim spending. Officials fear that a $95 million revenue shortfall in the two-year state budget may grow by $99 million.

The administration gave the Department of Education a target of $37.2 million in cuts, prompting Gendron to propose essentially level-funding education aid for 2008-09.

The state is scheduled to provide about $978 million in aid this school year and more than $1 billion in the next year, to boost its share of school costs to 55 percent.

Reducing next year's planned funding by $36.8 million would have eliminated virtually all of the increase, leaving schools with about $980 million.