Parents of students could fund more

Rather than engage in the running debate about how much money RSU 5 should spend, how about thinking about a different method by which the budget should be developed?

The state of Maine has developed a formula called Essential Programs and Services, which gives a monetary figure that all schools are required to fund for each student. All taxpayers of Freeport, Durham and Pownal are required to support that minimum cost. Any amount above that figure that RSU 5 requests should be debated and funded by taxpayers who have school-aged students, whether they are in the system or not. This pool of taxpayers acts like stockholders and sets the additional spending in the budget and are levied a proportional assessment based on the number of school-aged students that are in their family to cover the additional funding. Let’s call this an education use contribution for each family.

I have three school-aged children so I would be assessed three shares, which are my percentage of the desired “supplemental budget.” Much like “pay to play” assessments for sports, this contribution would support additional programs that the parent pool deemed necessary. The efficiency of this process is that only the interested parties are involved in the discussion, the supplemental portion of the budget is only funded by the “stockholders.” The other taxpayers need only support the state-mandated EPS. These taxpayers’ concerns of higher spending are then removed from the local debate, and budget time becomes a conversation with taxpayers who have investments in the schools, i.e., their children. Taxpayers with students going to school outside the RSU will be subject to the contribution, but will also have a say in the funding level, and perhaps more of an incentive to return their children to the system.

The way we do school budgets now is dysfunctional and divides the three communities. Why not leave taxpayers with no “dog in the fight” out of the discussion, and give more voice to the taxpayers who have investments in the system?

Jon Morris

Pownal