Weekly Column: Bulk of State Spending on Education is in Administration

February 1, 2007

Earlier this week, former Governor Angus King made strong points about taxes in a guest editorial to the Portland Press Herald. Over the past twelve years, he pointed out that our state has faced a number of potent issues usually revolving around taxes. These tax debates focused on how much money our state and local communities should spend on K-12 education and other major government services. Nearly half of every tax dollar collected in Maine goes to education. As a result, the state is paying nearly 55 percent of the local share of K-12 education costs plus teacher retirement benefits.

It might be logical to think that with all this money going into education Maine would have some of the best education results in the country. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. While we lead in some areas, we really lack in others. We often top the country in our high school graduation rates and our math and science scores, but we fail to arm students with the necessary skills to go on to college. In fact, Maine is eleven percentage points behind the rest of New England in college degree attainment. On top of this, our state is close to the bottom of the pack in terms of teacher salaries. That is unacceptable.

Conversely, our state spends more dollars per pupil than the national average. So where does that spending actually go? It turns out a big chunk of it goes towards administrative costs. While everyone has been arguing for years about putting more money into education, we have not done a good job guaranteeing that the money we add goes to those that need it the most: the students.

We need to do a better job!

This Monday, February 5th from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Augusta Civic Center, the Legislature’s Education and Appropriations Committee will hold a special public hearing to hear the major plans that have been proposed to find more efficiencies in our school districts. The public can read about the proposals and listen to Monday’s hearing live at www.legislature.maine.gov.

Like any public hearing, the public will have the opportunity to listen to the six or more education plans and comment. Since the structure of public hearings sometimes varies, sponsors of all the school district consolidation plans will speak first in the morning followed by public comment. There will be a three-minute time limit on public comments, so I advise those wishing to speak on plans to tell committee members what they like best about education in their communities and what they believe makes sense when restructuring.

This discussion has really taken off over the past couple weeks since Governor Baldacci announced his school district consolidation plan as part of the state’s budget. The Governor has recognized very clearly that lowering property taxes and maximizing our existing education dollars cannot happen without a little belt tightening at the school administrative level. For example, small communities can no longer afford to pay superintendents to oversee just three small schools. Some communities in our state are choosing to de-organize because they can no longer afford to pay their local government services while they struggle to pay for their education ones.

While some have quickly moved to criticize the Governor’s plan, those with concerns should know that there are at least six major plans that the Legislature will be carefully evaluating. Members of the Education Committee are acutely aware that the public has concerns and questions on issues dealing with local control matters and the size of proposed districts. However, the public should know that the proposals vary quite a bit. For instance, the number of regional school districts ranges from 26 to around 65 between the different plans.

It should also be worth noting that a lot of people and interested groups that have been studying the issue of restructuring our school districts and administration. Many of those groups like the Maine Municipal Association, Maine Children’s Alliance, and the Maine State Board of Education are planning to testify on proposals they have developed.

As a member of the Education Committee, I am looking forward Monday to hearing what everyone has to say. With the public’s input and support, I am confident we can put our state on a better path that will increase the value of our education dollars while lowering out state’s tax burden.

Libby Mitchell is the Senate Majority Leader in the Maine Senate. She represents the communities of Augusta, Vassalboro, China, Oakland, and Sidney for District 24.