Maine voters may be divided about who they want to see living in the governor’s mansion next year, whether they want a casino in Oxford County or if the federal government should cut taxes on the wealthy, but they are united on one question. They are concerned about education, and if the recent Maine Poll, conducted by Critical Insights for MaineToday Media, is correct, they are three times as likely to believe we are underspending on education than spending too much.

Considering how important education is, not only for individual success but for the state’s economy as a whole, the concern is not surprising. But considering how much we spend already in both state and local tax revenue, the concept that we are not spending enough raises serious questions about our future.

The question, however should be reframed. It’s not an issue of how much we spend, but how we spend it. We are still spending too much on administration and small class sizes, and too little in other areas, especially in higher education. The challenge for the next era of school reform will be using resources more effectively.

SPENDING HIGH

Maine already spends more per student than the national average and has some of the smallest class sizes. While our kids do well on national standardized tests, they do not perform as well as they once did, and we are losing ground against our economic development competitors in the region.

But the answer cannot just be spending more money. For one thing, the money may not be there.

K-12 education is already the biggest item in the state budget, making up nearly half of state spending and up to 70 percent of local ones. Adding to it now would further crowd out other priorities.

Furthermore, there is no firm evidence to support the notion that spending more is the answer. Maine has continued to increase spending on school every year during the decade leading up to the current recession, and people’s concerns about quality have only increase.

If we are going to improve our children’s education, we should be smart about it. A new report, Reinventing Government, put together by Envision Maine, concurs that schools should be a major focus for Maine’s future, but also identifies them as place where money could be saved.

In addition to further consolidating administration and reducing overhead for schools, the report also calls for starting to increase class sizes and reducing per-pupil expenditure, moving both toward the national average. In some areas, that could involve closing schools and reducing the number of teachers.

TOUGH SELL

Even in tough economic times, those are never easy ideas to sell politically. Not every lawmaker has a paper mill or a hospital in his or her district, but they all have at least one school, which is not only an important part of the community’s identitiy but can also be a major employer.

Still, lawmakers will have to put aside parochial concerns if the state is going to be able to cut wasteful school spending and redirect resources to the classrooms, where Maine people want to see better results.