State eyes $1 billion in school spending

AUGUSTA – The state is poised to funnel nearly $1 billion to local schools during the coming fiscal year.

Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron and members of her department staff briefed the Board of Education on next year’s recommended state support for education during its meeting Wednesday at the new Cony High School.

As proposed using the Essential Programs and Services formula adopted a year ago, the state share of public funding for kindergarten through 12 grade education for fiscal year 2007-08 would be $991,024,972. The state contributed a little over $914 million to public school education last year.

Although the figures could always be adjusted by the Legislature during its deliberations over the 2007-09 budget, Jim Rier, head of the department’s management information team, reminded board members the department’s projections were based on state law.

When the EPS system was created under LD 1, it set an exact timetable requiring the state to contribute 55 percent of the cost of education to local schools by 2009. The state will reach 52.5 percent under the department’s 2007-08 budget plan. Full EPS funding is scheduled to be in place with the 2008-09 budget.

“It’s important to know the funding follows current EPS law that began two years ago and is now in the third year of that cycle,” Rier told the board. “This is not like it used to be. We now calculate the cost of education as it’s written in law.”

Rier noted that much of the increase in spending was driven by salary increases, the minimum teacher pay requirement and utilities. He said the budget also took into account the $27,000 minimum teacher salary enacted by the Legislature last year. Nearly $2 million was set aside for local schools paying less than that to make up the difference. Rier also noted that the EPS transportation formula now considers two-way trips as well as miles driven and the miles of road within a particular school unit.

The budget proposal also contains $11 million for the laptop program, $9 million for the implementation of learning results and $1 million for data management support of EPS. The state will increase its share of the special education budget from 84 percent last year to 95 percent in 2007-08.

Rier said that at the same time as education costs continue to climb, enrollments continue to decline at a rate of about 3,000 children per year. He noted that Maine served 204,2106 students in 2004 and is projected to serve 195,570 next year. Rough State Planning Office estimates show enrollments bottoming out at 178,000 by 2012.

It was pointed out that 18,000 students were in the graduating class of 2006, while just 13,000 were enrolled in the ninth grade that same year. Birth rates continue to drop around the state, and Rier said that approximately $26 million had been set aside to help school districts deal with declining enrollment.

“Things are happening much more significantly in some parts of the state than others,” Rier said.

Board of Education Chairman James Carignan responded with a grimace and said, “That’s dramatic. That has to be looked at.”

Based on department calculations, 72 percent of the state’s educational dollars are devoted to salaries, benefits, administration and operations. Another 20 percent is consumed by special education, vocational education, gifted and talented programs, and transportation. Debt service on construction projects amounts to 5 percent of the budget, and stage agency clients and wards make up 3 percent of the budget.

The state’s nearly $1 billion share of education will be supplemented with a minimum of $829,373,531 in local taxpayer dollars. The funds will combine to cover the overall operating budgets under EPS for the state’s 290 school units. Under EPS, a minimum of $1,820,398,563 will be designated for education purposes in the 2007-08 school year.