See under Hood, Robin

Maine’s school-funding formula is complicated, but the idea behind it is not: Distribute state tax money, mostly to poor communities, so that every student in Maine has the opportunity to earn a proper education. All towns and cities also must make a tax effort to contribute to their local schools.

This simple idea sometimes gets lost in the heat of legislative debate and may get thrown out altogether if a lobbying group from southern Maine has its way.

The Coalition for Equitable School Funding is again making the argument that increasing the influence of income and cost-of-living factors in the formula produce fairer results and, more damaging, suggests that some poor communities don’t make much of an effort to help their own schools. In some specific instances, that last assertion may be true, but the Legislature should never make policy by anecdote. The fact is that, overall, poor towns make a significantly greater effort to fund schools than do wealthy communities.

Data from the state Department of Education bear this out. Its numbers show, for instance, that for the 1998-99 budget, the total education tax effort for the richest fifth of the state is 7.81 mills; the poorest fifth pays 12.03 mills. The middle three-fifths all are in the 11-mill range. That means that the poorest districts make the greatest effort; the richest, now matter where they are in the state, make the least.

Further, the coalition’s contention that the cost-of-living factor needs to be expanded or replaced with a cost of education COLA is simply a way to reward some towns for being rich — giving them more state dollars because their residents are wealthy enough to give more to education. The same is true for the income factor. The results of these types of changes can be devastating for poor districts. For instance, when the COLA was added to the formula under the Rosser Committee a couple of years ago the immediate effect was to take $3 million from such communities Houlton, Presque Isle and Gardiner and send it to Yarmouth, South Portland and Cape Elizabeth. This is equity?

The coalition is right about one thing: this is not merely a north-south issue. It’s a rich-poor issue, and the rich have Augusta lobbyists. It’s no surprise that better-off towns want to change the formula in their favor. What is surprising is their argument that the formula is supposed to take from the poor and give to the rich.