SCHOOL CUT TOPPLES TRUST

The promise implicit in the state’s school-funding mechanism, Essential Programs and Services, is that communities can expect to receive from Augusta no more than what they need to operate strong schools and that Augusta will take seriously its responsibility to ensure that the funding is delivered adequately and on time. But by proposing to simply ignore budget lines within EPS because money is tight at the state level, the Baldacci administration breaks the trust in that bargain and jeopardizes larger reforms before lawmakers.

On the surface, the proposal to cut $5.4 million from the ’09 state share of extra- and co-curricular budgets – sports, drama, debate teams, science clubs, etc. – looks like nothing more than the sort of thing some school boards have been known to do to raise tax money. When local budgets fall short, they will announce the basketball or football teams have been cancelled, bringing loud protests from residents, who then decide that maybe they could afford to pay a little more after all. It’s a trick, and, like all tricks, it doesn’t wear very well.

The Baldacci proposal is that, but it is also more serious. The state is in the middle of a difficult, complex negotiation to consolidate school districts, and communities are understandably concerned about the loss of local identity within larger districts, an identity they create, in part, through their support for school teams and clubs. Meanwhile, the administration has urged districts to think about new ways to cooperate with neighboring districts. But the most common points of contact for them – the games and competitions that allow athletes and academic standouts to test themselves against the students at other schools – is what the governor now endangers, undercutting the ability of districts to do what he says he wants.

The administration maintains that it will finally push the state to its longstanding goal of supplying 55 percent of K-12 funding within two years, a goal, to its credit, it has been approaching in the last few budget cycles. Though the budget change package that includes the extra- and co-curricular cuts also includes a temporary reduction in the rise of state funding, it does so within the formula and maintains the original 55 percent goal.

That higher level of funding, says Gov. Baldacci, will take the pressure off property taxes, and he has been consistent in scolding local governments that have not passed along savings to taxpayers as the state funding percentage has risen. With this proposed cut, unless he is assuming the school programs will disappear, he is now saying that the local taxpayer is to pick up the difference. Is it any wonder local governments have hesitated to surrender the tax savings?

District consolidation will rise or fall on trust. While it’s true that the budget line proposed for elimination is a tiny part of the EPS budget, when state government ignores the obligations of a funding mechanism it imposed, whatever trust districts had in Augusta evaporates, and that will cost far more than the proposed cut.