Fair school funding

With a proposal from Senate President Mark Lawrence, Maine for the first time in a decade has a chance to fund schools fairly. His plan will not pass, however, without broad public support. Parents, property taxpayers and municipal leaders, anyone who is angered by the state’s intention to abandon, once again, its full responsibility for funding schools, need to tell lawmakers to vote for this proposal.

Sen. Lawrence’s plan is simple. It takes two promises made by the state, one in 1985 and the other in 1993, and establishes an order for meeting them. The ’85 promise pledges that the state will fund at least 55 percent of the cost of running public schools, although it has never come close. The ’93 promise has the state return the sales tax, now at 5 1/2 percent, to 5 percent. The senator’s plan dedicates that half-penny of sales tax to General Purpose Aid to Education until it exceeds 50 percent, then reduces the sales tax.

Because the state has never kept its promise on school funding, property taxpayers have been forced to take on more of the burden or schools have had to do without. In many case, property taxpayers have taken on more than their share and schools are still inadequately funded. These taxpayers have been carrying the state for too long; they are the reason Augusta can talk about a budget surplus. They should be first in line to benefit from any tax break — the kind of break that Sen. Lawrence’s bill provides.

You might think that an orderly plan for the state to meet its obligations would be cheered by legislators. Some have embraced it; others seem confused, apparently unused to having a political leader actually commit the state to doing what it has said it would do. But if some lawmakers are unsure of how to react, the public is not.

A recent poll by the Maine-based Potholm Group found that of the three major taxes — property, sales and income — people most prefer to cut property taxes. Two-thirds of those polled liked the idea of keeping the half-penny on the sales tax and dedicating it to schools — only 14 percent opposed the idea. The proposal was supported by a large majority of Republicans, Democrats and independents. The support across the political spectrum is not surprising — before people are members of a party, they are parents concerned about the quality of their schools, homeowners concerned about property taxes, members of a community being hurt by the state’s inaction.

The additional funding for schools — approximately $45 million next year, $60 million the year after — is not only important as a relief to property taxes, it can return fairness to the school funding formula. And there is good news in this area — lawmakers have been making progress on several plans to overhaul the formula, which has been distorted by adding cost-of-living and income adjustments and other factors. These alterations have driven tens of millons of dollars away from the poorest schools and toward those better off; chronic underfunding has made the situation worse. But for the first time in years lawmakers are agreeing to real improvement and stand a good chance of producing reform that will passed by the full Legislature.

Any reform, however, is based on the expectation that money for schools will be increased — lawmakers need enough additional money to prevent schools that would otherwise lose funding under the changes from being harmed. Without additional money, there will be no formula changes, no property-tax relief, no break for the poorest towns. They’re all connected and they can all happen this session, but they depend on increasing GPA funds to the level described by Sen. Lawrence’s plan.

This is where public involvement is crucial.

Legislative Democrats will meet early next week to decide whether they will stick with the easier plan of claiming victory by just cutting the sales tax, even if it doesn’t particularly help working families — or whether to show leadership by supporting the Lawrence proposal. Call them at the numbers listed below and tell them it’s all right to be responsible.

Republicans say they can cut the sales tax and fund schools, but have failed so far to produce a budget that would do it. Tell them to produce it or back Sen. Lawrence’s plan.

Gov. Angus King talks frequently about the importance of education, but threatens to kill the school-funding plan with a veto. Call him and tell him words won’t pay for textbooks.

Members of school boards across Northern Maine, Down East, in the western mountains and, to the surprise of some, in parts of Southern Maine have been waiting a decade for the chance to fix the school funding formula and have the state pay its fair share. The chance arrives next week, but it is hardly certain.

What is certain is that, without public involvement, the Lawrence proposal will not survive, property taxpayers will again be stuck with the bill and schools will suffer.

Democrats, 287-1515 in the Senate, 287-1430 in the House.

Republicans, 287-1505 in the Senate, 287-1440 in the House.

Governor’s office, 287-3531.