With Labor Day behind us, students all across Maine are back to school. While many kids spent the summer beside the water, gathering with friends and family and enjoying some of the best activities Vacationland has to offer, legislators were hard at work, crafting a budget with them in mind.
The result was an historic investment of $160 million to finally fund education above the 55 percent level for the first time, within existing resources, without raising a single new tax on hardworking Mainers. Included with this investment were a number of reforms to ensure that our dollars are wisely spent to ensure quality educational opportunities for all students, regardless of where they attend school.
Maine’s student population has long been declining with a net loss of 10,000 students over the last six years, yet in that same time administrative costs have increased by 14 percent. Looking to the future needs of our students, we have implemented reforms that will begin to right-size administrative costs and direct funding into the classroom.
This goal is achieved by facilitating inter-local agreements to allow districts to collaborate on a regional basis, saving money on administrative costs while providing better services for students. The budget provided additional funds for the construction of regional schools with integrated career and technical education, as well as higher education partnerships. We also created school management and leadership centers to train administrators and facilitate the sharing of extracurricular or co-curricular programs.
In simpler terms, Maine students, especially in rural areas, will have increased access to a variety of opportunities, including band, sports and foreign language classes. We have also included reforms to better target tax dollars where it matters the most – in the classroom.
For every dollar the State spends on education, only 59 cents is spent on instruction-related costs, compared to 66 cents in New Hampshire and 67 cents in Massachusetts. This is largely due to our growing administration costs.
To ensure that the classroom is our priority, we enacted reforms to reallocate $87.5 million dollars to economically disadvantaged school districts by eliminating the Title I penalty, repealing declining enrollment and adding additional funding for special needs students.
School districts will need to reprioritize and shift funding toward classroom instruction by setting a benchmark of 70 cents on every dollar dedicated to instruction-related costs and adjust the student/teacher ratios to support smaller class sizes in the lower grades where it has been proven that students benefit.
Providing college and career skills was also a top priority. It is critical that Maine’s K-12 education system adequately prepares our students to take the next step upon high school graduation – whether that is continuing education, practicing a trade or joining the workforce.
To accomplish this we expanded access to career and technical education to students at a younger age by offering programs to middle school students beginning in grade 6. We also provided funding for high school students to enroll in early college programs through the Maine Community College System and the University of Maine System.
Last year alone, more than 2,400 students across Maine racked up 16,889 college credit hours, a 93% increase over the previous year. This amazing program is made possible by our state university system forgoing $4.5 million in tuition revenue, matched by the Department of Education, over the last three years.
A strong economy relies on a good education system. We can’t have one without the other; hopefully through greater investment and these meaningful reforms, we can accomplish both. I wish you and/or your students a wonderful year of learning!