Summary
AUGUSTA The states formula for distributing education funding to communities is under siege again in the Legislature, this time with support from the Department of Education and several key legislators.
The Department of Educations Essential Programs and Services formula, which is used to define what the state will pay for in public schools as well as how much, is one of the most complex and cumbersome formulas in state government. As one glib speaker at a string of public hearings on the issue Wednesday in Augusta put it, about two people in Maine understand it, and they disagree with each other about how it works. Despite its complexity, the formulas effects since it was enacted are easy to see, particularly in rural and economically disadvantaged areas that have seen their state education funding devastated since EPS was enacted in 2004.See the full content of this document
Extract
Bills Seek Change in School Funding Formula
In my memory, no other policy has had such an enormously detrimental impact on education in rural areas, Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, the prime sponsor of a bill that would overhaul the formula, told the Legislatures Education and Cultural Affairs Committee Wednesday. An effort to help disadvantaged school...
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