$2.1 million identified to boost aid to schools Education Department cuts proposed

AUGUSTA — Democrats on the Legislature’s Education Committee have identified $2.1 million worth of cuts they want taken from the Department of Educational and Cultural Services budget and restored as state aid to local schools.

All legislators on the Education Committee said their top priority, if money could be found in the current round of budget cuts, would be restoring $10 million in general-purpose school aid.

Gov. John R. McKernan’s proposed $146 million in budget cuts to help offset a $210 million budget shortfall includes cuts of state aid to local schools that educators say total about $31 million statewide.

School and municipal officials have been lobbying hard to have at least some of the cuts restored to lessen the impact the state budget cuts would have on local property-tax payers.

The Democratic majority on the Education Committee favored these cuts:

Cut $700,000 from the teacher-certification process. The specifics have yet to be developed.

Impose a one-year moratorium on Maine Education Assessment testing of fourth-, eighth- and 11th-graders, to save $675,000.

Impose a one-year moratorium on Innovative Education Grants, excluding the second year of grants already made, to save $550,000.

Save $125,000 on instructional consultants.

Save $25,000 on department printing and mailing.

Impose a one-year moratorium on the School Report Card program, saving $13,000.

The Appropriations Committee, which is reviewing the fiscal 1991 budget, was briefed on the proposed education cuts on Friday and at least one key lawmaker liked them.

“I don’t have any problems with these recommendations,” said Rep. Donald V. Carter, D-Winslow, House chairman of Appropriations. “I thought they were well reasoned and well thought out.”

But McKernan said he thought it would be “penny-wise and pound-foolish” to scrap such programs as MEA exams and school report cards, because “We need accountability in education.”

Sen. Stephen Bost, D-Orono, who has criticized McKernan for not cutting enough jobs in the education bureaucracy, said the recommended cuts and moratoriums would mean the loss of an unspecified number of jobs in the education department.

But Bost said, “The governor’s budget reflects a clear disregard for the needs of local school districts and property-tax payers.