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Reforming Maine's Education Funding Process, Patrick M. Dow, Ralph Townsend

Maine Policy Review

In recent years funding for Maine K-12 education has been a source of almost constant dissension. As authors Patrick Dow and Ralph Townsend note, much of this dissension began in the early 1990s with the legislature's decision to reduce funding for local education. Shrinking community budgets for local education have led to political battles over who gets what and have led to changes in the school funding formula established in the 1970s. The authors argue that these changes have eroded the principles of equity on which the 1970s formula was built. They trace the history of education funding in Maine, …