The Kennebec Journal

March 15

Kids deserve better than to absorb millions more in cuts to education

Larry Morrissette

Most Maine schools are facing unprecedented financial challenges.

Gov. John Baldacci has proposed sharply curtailing the state's commitment to public education by slashing millions of dollars from our schools.

Local school boards may ask taxpayers to consider a slight increase to the tax rate in order to make up for the dramatic shortfall. With a slight tax rate increase, the cuts to our schools still will be drastic. Without an increase, the cuts will be catastrophic. This story is playing out in communities all over Maine.

The school funding crisis was precipitated by one of the worst economic downturns in more than 30 years. The impact it is having on our schools is a result of a Legislature that has consistently failed to meet its responsibility to Maine's students, in spite of strong support in statewide referendum votes to stabilize aid to education.

The result is that the responsibility for funding education has been pushed to local communities and their school boards and administrators. They, in turn, are trying to push that responsibility on the teachers and staff members, expecting them to pay for it because all the other solutions are just too hard. Our greatest deficit in Maine continues to be in leadership.

The governor's refusal to consider even modest tax increases, even as state funding for education has shrunk, has shifted the burden to the local level. Some communities, seeking to protect the quality of their schools, try to make up the difference by raising property taxes. In the communities that can't afford it, the kids will suffer as programs disappear, curriculum becomes narrower, classroom sizes swell, and local schools are forced to close.

The governor has proposed adding back a little more than half of the proposed cuts to public education. That's good, but not good enough.

Our public schools already were underfunded, and even a cut of $15 million will mean that schools are forced to make program cuts, to do more with less, or to ask the local taxpayers to foot the bill. None is a good option. All shortchange local taxpayers and our state's students.

The teachers and support staff in our schools are dedicated professionals, who bring their advanced education, skills, talents and commitment to our classrooms.

They already have felt the effects of the economic downturn.

Many school districts have resorted to furlough days, further reducing incomes that have been falling for several years.

Maine teachers' salaries now rank 43rd in the nation. We stand to lose our best educators, and we may find ourselves unable to compete for the best to replace them.

Most schools already have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars (for some, millions) in state subsidies over the last two years. It's easy to call for salary freezes, furlough days and benefit freezes for teachers, but those actions won't solve the problem. Teachers are not the problem.

It is time for state legislators to restore the state's commitment to Maine's children and Maine's future. They have three options:

* Raising the tax on cigarettes and alcohol.

* Pushing the last payment of the fiscal year in June forward to July.

* Raising the sales tax by a penny.

All these options must be considered, and adequate revenues should be dedicated specifically to fund our local schools. Maine's children deserve no less.

Contact your local legislators and tell them that you support your local schools, and they should, too. www.maine.gov/portal/government/edemoc racy/lookup_officials.php

Larry Morrissette is president of the Maranacook Area Schools Association.