The Morning Sentinel

March 4

Education officials react to changes in funding

BY MATTHEW STONE, Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- Maine's school and university officials heard their first bit of promising budget news Wednesday after months of making plans for sharp budget reductions.

Gov. John Baldacci proposed returning $20 million in state funds to local school districts, reflecting overall revenue forecasts that have been revised upward by $51 million.

At the state's universities and community colleges, the governor proposed restoring all cuts he had originally written into his supplemental budget. Education Commissioner Susan Gendron called the restored funds "good news for education."

The state's school districts will still have to trim their budgets for the upcoming school year, but the cuts shouldn't be as steep as school administrators expected they'd be as recently as Tuesday.

"It's less red than it was on the other printout, but it's still red," Gendron told members of the Legislature's Education Committee. "It's still less money."

The $20 million addition to Baldacci's budget brings total state K-12 education spending to $930 million for the 2010-11 school year. That's still $34 million less than schools are receiving from state coffers this year.

Instead of dealing with a $1.91 million cut, the Farmington-based Mount Blue Regional School District will instead decide how to make up for a $1.65 million drop in state funds.

"It's helpful. I'm not unappreciative of the efforts," said Michael Cormier, the district's superintendent. "It's still a sad commentary on where we are."

For Readfield-based Regional School Unit 38, the budget revisions mean the four-town district will face $802,000 in cuts to its state funds, rather than the $987,000 cut it was bracing for.

Superintendent Rich Abramson said Wednesday it was too early to tell how the new numbers would affect budget reductions. But the upward revenue projections, combined with a low health insurance premium increase for teachers, are "two good pieces of news as we really struggle with serious budget constraints," he said.

Maine's community colleges -- originally facing $1.7 million in state funding cuts -- will face no state reductions, according to Baldacci's revised budget proposal. And the state's university system will no longer face the $6 million funding cut it was anticipating.

"It's encouraging to note that the governor is recommending this step even though money is still very tight in Maine," Robert Kennedy, president of the University of Maine in Orono, wrote on the university's Web site.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com