Stay with GPA funding

Despite a tight state budget expected next year, Education Commissioner Duke Albanese did the right thing this week by proposing that Maine stay on track for recovering K-12 funding lost to communities in the early 1990s recession. His recommendation that General Purpose Aid to Education be increased by 6 percent next year was an encouraging sign that the King administration could be committed to eventually fully funding the state’s share of GPA.

Given the recent increases in GPA funding, hitting a 6 percent target would not be in question under the surpluses that have arrived annually in Augusta for the last four years. But this year is different; the state, if current expenditures are continued, will be short some $200 million in funding. GPA is the largest single budget item. It will undoubtedly be viewed by lawmakers as a place to cut.

Maintaining funding at 6 percent or higher, however, makes sense for several reasons. It would demonstrate that adequate school funding is not just a nice option when times are good. More and more, state governments nationwide are recognizing the best civic and job-training institutions are public schools and higher-education systems for both children and for adults returning to get more education. Setting high standards, through programs such as Maine’s Learning Results, and providing the public with the tools to meet them is the best chance Maine has of supporting a growing population and a vibrant economy.

And not only is this funding important as a matter of fairness and education equity -poor towns cannot possibly match what wealthy ones can afford to provide their students – it is essential to meeting the administration’s plan to fund Essential Programs and Services, the new funding model in which the state guarantees a base line level of funding so that all schools can teach what students will need to know to succeed. Current estimates place the state some $150 million behind what it needed to fully operate the new model.

The state has made progress in taking up the burden of GPA funding it dropped 10 years ago. It has also expanded support to communities in other ways, for instance, through a school renovation fund and the Homestead Exemption. But it would be a mistake to back off on GPA funding progress now and force Maine communities into another decade of loaded down property taxes and expanded inequity in the schools.