Governor LePage Increases General Purpose Aid to Local Schools

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For Immediate Release: Tuesday, Mar. 19

Contact: Adrienne Bennett, Press Secretary (207) 287-2531

AUGUSTA – If Governor Paul R. LePage’s biennial budget is enacted as proposed, he will have invested more state funding in our schools than the previous administration. Governor LePage has presented a two-year budget that provides about $84 million more in state funding to schools compared to the education budget when he took office.

“Opponents keep saying that I have cut funding for schools, but that just isn’t true,” said the Governor. “If my budget is approved, we will have increased state funding for education by $84 million. A high-quality educational system that is effective and accountable is one of my highest priorities.”

Decreases in education funding come from the loss of one-time federal stimulus money, not from the Governor’s proposed budget. The Governor is determined to see more state funding for education go toward students and teachers, not for more administration.

One of the most vocal critics of the Governor is Portland Mayor Michael Brennan, who falsely claimed that the Governor was cutting education funding.

Now the Portland School District has proposed a 5 percent increase in its $97.4 million budget, which would result in a tax rate increase of 3.7 percent. The proposal includes a 31 percent increase in the Superintendent's Office budget.

“This proposal is an example of years of misplaced priorities in education spending,” the Governor said. “Maine spends 4.5 percent of school funding on administration, when the national average is 2 percent.”

When the Governor took office, the general purpose aid (GPA) baseline for education funding was $872 million. Governor LePage increased education funding by $63 million in the previous two-year budget, which ends June 30. GPA would stay around $895 million through fiscal years 2013-14 and 2014-15.

In fiscal year 2012, he added $17 million above the GPA baseline for a total of $889 million.

In fiscal year 2013, he added $23 million above the GPA baseline for a total of $895 million. That increase comes after the curtailment of GPA enacted in the recent supplemental budget.

In fiscal year 2014, the Governor would add $22 million above the GPA baseline for a total of $894 million. In fiscal year 2015, funding would remain at $894 million.

Included in the $84 million is $16 million in incentives for educational efficiency, to establish accountability and to boost the Jobs for Maine's Graduates Program.

Note: The $894 million listed for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 is the net amount committed by the state after $27 million in new money is added to GPA to partially offset the $28 million in new costs to districts created by having those districts pay the normal pension costs for their employees. The actual proposed amount for GPA for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 is about $922 million.

 

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