WESTBROOK – Commissioner of Education Duke Albanese has proposed increasing state aid for K-12 public schools by 6 percent for the next school year, from $664 million to $704 million.

If approved by lawmakers, it would mark the third time in the past four years that general-purpose aid for K-12 education has been increased by such a substantial amount. It’s a marked turnaround from the early and mid- 1990s, when state aid stagnated and in one year was actually cut.

Presenting his proposal to the State Board of Education, meeting Wednesday at the Westbrook Regional Vocational Center, Albanese said, “We really struggled in the 1990s. We need sustaining improvements. And sustaining [something] is always elusive.”

The jump in aid is part of a long-term public policy initiative to move to an Essential Programs and Services model for funding Maine’s public schools, according to Albanese. “Without a sustained financial commitment … the transition to a more equitable school funding formula … will be jeopardized.”

The increase has been submitted to Gov. Angus King, who is drafting the state budget. General-purpose aid to schools makes up 26 percent of the current budget. It’s the largest single portion, more than double the second largest.

Six percent is “an excellent target, but it remains to be seen how close we get to it,” said John Ripley, King’s spokesman. The deadline for finalizing the budget is Jan. 5.

The recommended rise keeps the state on mark to hit targets laid out in statute three years ago concerning what is known as the “per pupil guarantee.” This is the minimum amount of money – a combination of state and local funds – that a district must spend on each student.

The state is heading into the third year of a four-year plan aimed at lifting the per-pupil guarantee to what is projected to be the average spent across the state in the 2002-03 school year.

Stepping up the guarantee is the prelude to an overhaul in state education spending that will be based on providing the essential program and services believed necessary to educate a child according to the state’s new educational standards, the Learning Results.

The current guarantee is $4,307 per pupil. Under Albanese’s proposal, it would rise to $4,687 next school year. The target for 2002-03 is $5,204.

The effect of this rise is to shift a proportion of state aid from wealthier school districts, based on the amount of property value per pupil, to poorer ones.

During the 1990s, when aid was cut, the state was not getting enough money to the schools with the greatest need, Albanese said.

Until the 1999-2000 school year, the per-pupil guarantee was set without regard to the actual level of per-pupil costs. It was based on the amount of money provided by lawmakers. The 1998-99 guarantee of $3,675 was less than 83 percent of that school year’s per-pupil cost of $4,448.

Another part of the four-year plan for school financing involves reversing some of the financial measures lawmakers resorted to in the 1990s to offset losses in state revenues triggered by the 1990-91 recession.

One of those desperate measures was a reduction of state reimbursement for certain local school spending. Jim Watkins of the Maine Department of Education said, “We were ignoring a lot of legitimate costs.”

In 1998-99, the state only reimbursed $120 million of the $148 million allotted for things such as transportation, special education and vocational education. The goal is to reimburse the state’s full share of these costs by 2002-03.

The $704 million is broken down into four broad categories: $607 million in “foundation” aid, for salaries and school supplies, among other things; $58.5 million for debt service; $36.4 million for “adjustments”; and $2 million for a “hardship cushion,” which goes to schools facing a loss in state aid.

If the education department has its way, the cushion will be eliminated in a few years. The cushion is not the best method to provide equity, Watkins said, but it is a necessary political component to bring people aboard the train of changes in school funding.

Albanese said the cushion is defensible while the school funding law is changing to help school districts losing state aid because of the changes.

However, the education department is hoping that lawmakers will start phasing out the cushion for districts that are losing state aid because of rising property values or falling enrollments, he added.

The cushion would be slashed from $4.3 million this school year to $2 million next year under Albanese’s proposal.