Many people I talk with can't believe the state of funding for public education. They believe pre-K through postsecondary levels of education to be priorities for our towns, state and national governments. They believe that education provides the foundation for a good job and a good citizenry. They see the struggle every year at budget time that school boards go through to build budgets that support their public schools. Why does this struggle happen? Why do we allow our schools to endure such political upheaval every year, year after year when schools are one societal institution where stability is most beneficial to our way of life?
Unfunded mandates from all levels of government represent the interests of politicians and their constituents, increasingly businesses. These unfunded mandates drain money away from support for programs and services that directly educate children. In Maine, the Essential Programs and Services (EPS) funding formula is used by politicians to determine how much state money each school district receives each year. Maine law also requires each town/city to raise money to supplement the amount of state aid to education received each year. Together these sums of money theoretically should be able to support a basic education, ie. to offer instruction to meet the Learning Results, including special education and other related services. These last sentences seem simple enough. Each school's budget also pays for extracurricular activities, to operate school buildings (and any debt service), transportation, etc. As with all organizations, employee salaries and benefits make up the majority of the total budget. And now imagine that many of us want our children to have a comprehensive education, not just a basic one, to prepare them for good jobs and to be good citizens. So, many local school boards develop budgets that go beyond just the basic education in order to offer an excellent educational experience. This creates a gap in funding which some local communities choose to address by raising additional funds. Now imagine that Maine governors and state legislators choose not to honor a citizen mandate to comply with paying 55% of the costs of public education. Imagine also that reimbursement for special education costs have never reached promised levels. Imagine that our State of Maine reduces a town's state funding amount by whatever amount they receive in federal awards for assistance in educating disadvantaged students. The gap increases and local communities must decide whether to raise more money.....local property taxes increase more. Now consider the refrain heard over and over, 'schools must control their budgets better'. How can schools offer comprehensive education when the political process creates so much uncertainty and instability in their funding? How can schools control their budgets when so much money is drained away year after year (where does the money get transferred to anyway....another future blog post!)? Year after year, financial obligations not fulfilled by a political process that appears to just not care about the fact that public education is slowly being strangled?
In 2012, our Maine Legislature commissioned an independent firm, Picus Associates, to study the EPS formula to determine if it was effective in determining the appropriate amount of state aid for education AND whether equitable funding of public education can be achieved using this formula. The PICUS study concluded that the EPS only accounted for funding that would cover a basic, not comprehensive, education. It concluded that Maine underfunds public education by $260 million dollars a year. It concluded that the formula itself accomplishes equity in public education money. But it also added that because the formula only addresses the programs, services, and costs that support a basic education, many communities exceed the local share of education funding required by varying amounts to pay for things they wanted their children to have that their state share of education funding did not cover. Communities that raise these extra funds do so by raising their local property taxes. Thus, they concluded inequitable educational opportunity exists across the state. They also noted that some local communities choose not to raise even the minimum local share required, further exacerbating the inequity.
So, as Maine underfunds public education and falls behind all other New England states (except Vermont) in per pupil spending, we now have the people of Maine speaking again in 2016 through a referendum process Question 2 calling for Maine politicians to meet their obligations and appropriately fund public education.
People have asked me my position on Question 2. How can I answer that? I started by doing research and informing myself of all the details related to school funding and Question 2. I have traveled the state asking 'political leaders' and educators how Question 2 will benefit public education. I asked how will the money collected through Question 2, passing through the EPS formula/political process change the current state of funding issues? Answer: more legislation is required to solve the issues. Unequivocally, I support adequate funding for public education in Maine. Equally, I support equitable funding of public education in Maine. What I have little faith in is the political process that currently is eroding public education. I have several more days of weighing all the information I have gathered before I cast my absentee ballot. In a successful 2003 referendum, Maine people first asked that the state pay 55% of the costs of public education. Thirteen years is a long time to wait while several terms of governors and legislatures have made their funding priorities. I probably will lend my voice in support of Question 2 and hope that the political process will be successful in changing the course of funding for public education.
No comments:
Post a Comment