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Effort Underway to Change Charter School Funding in Maine

AUGUSTA, Maine - Historically, debate over charter schools in Maine has meant sharp disagreement between their supporters and those who believe they operate at the expense of traditional public schools and districts.  But in Augusta today, the two sides were more or less in agreement. Maine, they argued before the Legislature's Education Committee, must change how it funds charter schools.
This concern over how to fund charter schools - it didn't just pop up out of the blue. In June of 2011, state lawmakers debated the bill that would legalize charters. Elizabeth Schneider, a former Democratic state senator from Orono, wondered what these alternative public schools would mean for their traditional counterparts in districts across the state.

"Additional entities coming in and potentially pulling away student population - will that impact our public schools?" she said. "And I would say that it will definitely impact our public schools."

And it has, financially at least.

"I've circulated to you a small brief chart, just to give you a sense of what would happen if we continue the current funding system," Tom Desjardin, Maine's acting education commissioner, said Monday as he handed out a chart at the committee hearing.

Charters are public schools. Right now, when a child enrolls in one, the state and local money that would have followed the student to his traditional public school goes to the charter school instead. This has left districts with charters - like the 13 on Desjardin's list - losing money.

"RSU 54, for example - Skowhegan - would incur a cost of $1,011,408. Topsham $829,851. Brunswick $537, 599 and so on," Desjardin said.

To stop the financial bleeding, Desjardin says the state needs to treat charter schools "in the same manner as school administrative units - in other words, school districts."

A bill, backed by Gov. Paul LePage, would do just that, paying charters a flat annual sum, based on a school's enrollment numbers. The Education Committee, meantime, heard testimony on two other bills with the same goal as the governor's measure.

"We strongly support the effort to spread the cost of charter schools throughout the state," said Connie Brown. Brown heads the Maine School Management Association, which is backing one of the measures, LD 131.

"LD 131 would spread the local share across all districts by slightly increasing the local mill rate - the best estimate we have is by six one-hundredths of a mill," Brown said. "The bill would also put special focus on virtual charter schools."

The bill calls for a one-year moratorium on the approval of any new virtual charter schools, so the Legislature can study which online learning model would work best for the state, But that's not something the governor - and possibly many lawmakers - are going to get behind.