Opinion ID: 2328281
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Act's Funding Formula

Text: The Act provides a method for sharing the cost of public education between the state and local school units. The statutory formula is complex, but essentially it provides for a foundation level of spending per pupil that is based on the average of the actual local operating costs of all school units in the state, separated into elementary and secondary students. 20-A M.R.S.A. §§ 15603(13), 15605(2)(A), 15607(1). The total allocation for a particular school unit, the foundation level multiplied by the number of pupils, is apportioned between the state subsidy and the local share. 20-A M.R.S.A. §§ 15609, 15610. The Commissioner of Education each year recommends to the Legislature a total state expenditure for education and the associated statewide mill rates to be used in the funding calculations. 20-A M.R.S.A. § 15605. The local share of the operating costs, for example, is calculated by applying the mill rate set by the Legislature each year and the state property valuations for each municipality. 20-A M.R.S.A. §§ 15607(2), 15609. The result of the funding formula is best illustrated by a simplified hypothetical. We assume that there are two school units with the same number of pupils. The municipalities in School Unit A have one million dollars in property valuation while those in Unit B have two million in property valuation. Multiplying the statewide mill rate by each unit's property valuation results in a local share for operating costs for School Unit A that is one-half that of Unit B. A unit with less property value per pupil generates fewer dollars from the mill rate used in calculating the local share and thus receives a proportionately higher state subsidy than a unit with higher property values per pupil. It follows that a unit with a proportionately higher state subsidy would lose proportionately more funding from a percentage reduction in the state subsidy. [1]