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Schools
face budget cuts
School
districts are facing tough budgets next year with the
loss of $20 million in Medicaid funding – money that
will have to be made up somehow to cover required special
education services. That's on top of the loss of
$34 million in federal Jobs Funds.
Read
more...
Committee votes on key bills
The
Education Committee has completed work on bills carried
over from the last session that deal with a number of
issues important to K-12 schools, ranging from polices
on bullying to a standards-based diploma.
Read
more...
MSBA
seeks to join health insurance suit
The
Maine School Boards Association has petitioned the
federal court to intervene in a lawsuit
brought by the
Maine Education Association
Benefits Trust that seeks to
block implementation
of a law allowing school districts
to get the information they need to solicit
competitive
bids on health insurance.
Read
more...
Annual
Fall Conference a success
Strong
attendance and a diverse and informative
group of clinic
presenters made the 38th Annual
Fall Conference a success.
MSMA wants to thank
all those who
attended and shared ideas. You are the reason
Fall Conference is
such a valuable experience.
Fall
Conference photos
State
will apply for NCLB waiver
The
state Department of Education will be putting together an
application for a federal waiver of what
are considered the most burdensome aspects
of No Child Left Behind .
Read
more...
GPA estimates
released for 2012-13
The
Department of Education has released estimates of General
Purpose Aid by school administrative unit for 2012-2013,
with a disclaimer that the numbers could change given the
uncertainty in the state’s economy.
Read
more...
GPA
by district...
Are waivers
answer to failed NCLB law?
Maine,
like many other states, is seeing a growing percentage of
schools fail to meet student achievement goals under
the federal No Child Left Behind law – a backward
slide precipitated by annual targets that keep
getting raised to meet the ultimate goal of 100
percent of students being proficient in English and math
by 2014.
Read
more...
Legislature
passes education bills
The
first session of the 125th Legislature passed major
pieces of legislation dealing with
K-12 education. Click on the link below
to see which bills passed.
Read
more...
Budget
impacts GPA, retirees
The
state has adopted a $6 billion two-year budget that
includes an increase in state aid
to schools that
partially restores lost federal funds and makes changes
to the state’s retirement system.
Read
more...
School
District health insurance options
Gov.
Paul LePage signed a bill that will give School Boards more options when purchasing
health
insurance for district employees in an effort to
control costs so more money can be put into the
classroom.
Read
more...
Changes to
consolidation law passed
Gov.
Paul LePage has signed into law two bills that
affect school consolidation - one that deals with
penalties and the other with the withdrawal process from
an existing regional school unit.
Read
more...
Need
for competitive health insurance bids
School Board members
testified on April 5 in support of a third bill that
would give school districts more options when purchasing
health care insurance for their employees, saying it was
time to end the monopoly the Maine Education Association
Benefits Trust has on business, estimated to be
worth nearly $400 million annually in premiums.
Read
more...
Commissioner
Bowen
outlines agenda
Commissioner of Education
Stephen Bowen met with the MSBA Board of Directors
in
February and said there needs to be a comprehensive plan
and vision for public education in Maine.
Read
more...
State
revenue picture improving
The state's revenue picture has
improved by $477 million,
substantially reducing the hole legislators will have to
fill when they begin budget deliberations in January.
The increased revenue is
largely being driven by improved individual and corporate
income tax collections and affects both the current
fiscal year and the next biennium.
Read
more...
Fall
Conference Photo Album
Thanks to all who made the
2010 Annual MSMA Fall Conference a success. The more than 50 clinics
offered were well attended and well received. Click on the link
below to see a Photo Album of the two-day event. Just use the arrow
key to scroll through the pictures.
Photo
Album...
No
curtailment for K-12 education
Gov. John Baldacci issued a
curtailment order for just under $9 million that does not affect
General Purpose Aid to K-12 schools or higher education.
Read
more...
Distribution
of $39 million from Jobs Fund
The Department of Education
has released estimates on how much each school administrative unit
will get of the $39 million in federal Education Jobs Fund money
coming to Maine. The amounts
are on the website at: www.maine.gov/education/recovery/edujobs.html
Read
more...
Student-teacher
ratio more than 12-to-1
A new report from
the federal government now says Maine has a student-teacher ratio of
12.2-to-1 – a ratio that is increasing as budgets tighten and
enrollments stabilize.
Read
more...
$40
million curtailment no longer a threat
School
districts are no longer facing the possibility of a nearly $40
million curtailment in spending starting in October since Congress
earlier this month passed a bill that covered the lion’s share of
a deficit in the state’s federal Medicaid account.
Read
more...
Maine
below NE on per-pupil spending
Maine ranks 15th in
the nation in terms of per-pupil spending and spent less per student
than any other New England state, according to a Census report
released late last month.
Read
more...
Click below for full report: http://www.census.gov/govs/school/
Reported
student-teacher ratio wrong
A 9-to-1 student
teacher ratio reported for Maine by the federal government,
which was used as fodder in a Democratic gubernatorial primary debate
and has been cited in opinion pieces and in presentations
before the Legislature, is wrong.
Read
more...
82
districts sign onto Race to Top
Commissioner
of Education Angela Faherty announced 82 school districts have
agreed to participate in
the state’s Race to the Top grant application, with the hope that Maine will be awarded up to
$75 million from the federal government.
Read more...
Teacher
evaluation bill passes
The Legislature approved a bill
that allows student test results to be used in teacher and principal
evaluations, but left in place an amendment pushed by the
teachers’ union that prohibits local school districts from
adopting their own evaluation systems if they include achievement
data.
Read
more...
Consolidation
law changes
passed
The Legislature has
approved a bill that puts more flexibility into the school
consolidation law for
those districts that want to come together, but don’t meet the
current minimum size requirements.
Read
more...
Budget
restores some GPA cuts
The
Legislature on March 30 passed a supplemental state budget that cuts
$48 million out of General Purpose Aid over this year and next – a
cut that could have been worse without the infusion of state and
federal money that came in during the final month of budget
deliberations.
Read
more...
Click
here for revised GPA cuts by district
Committee
backs $25 million for GPA
The Appropriations
Committee on Monday evening unanimously voted for a proposed
budget that restores $25 million to General Purpose Aid next school
year and removes just over $1 million in penalties about to be
levied against 15 school districts that voted in favor of school
consolidation, but their potential partners did not.
Read
more...
GPA
now proposed at $25 million
Gov
John Baldacci on March 11 proposed that an additional $5
million be restored to General Purpose Aid for 2010-2011, bringing
the total proposed restoration to $25 million for the upcoming
school year.
Read
more...
Click
here for revised GPA cuts by district
Plan would
restore $20 million to GPA
Gov.
John Baldacci on March 3 proposed changes to his supplemental
budget that would restore $20 million to General Purpose Aid to
education for school year 2010-2011.
Read
more...
Click
here for revised GPA cuts by district
Click here to see comparison chart
Proposed
budget cuts school funding
Gov.
John Baldacci on Dec. 18 released his proposed supplemental budget
that cuts $38 million out of General Purpose Aid to schools in the
current fiscal year and $35 million out of next year – a plan that
if adopted would put total aid to schools in the current year at
$964 million and $911 million in school year 2010-2011.
Read
more...
Spending cuts
ordered as revenue forecast gets worse
Gov.
John Baldacci has issued an order to state agencies to cut spending
by $63 million -- $38 million of which will be in General Purpose
Aid to schools. The move is a stop-gap measure until the Legislature
can act on a supplemental budget, which will further cut spending to
deal with what now is estimated to be a $384 million shortfall in
revenues in this fiscal year and next.
Read
more...
Governor
plans to issue curtailment order
Gov.
John Baldacci is expected to issue an order to curtail spending on
Friday to help keep the state budget in balance until the
Legislature returns to vote on a supplemental budget – a
curtailment that will likely cut at least $38 million in General
Purpose Aid to schools in the current year.
Read
more...
Schools brace for
$38 million in cuts for current year
School
districts looking to estimate how much of a cut they will be facing
in this current fiscal year, if the state reduces General Purpose
Aid by $38 million, can multiply their share of last year’s $27
million curtailment by 1.4 to get a figure for planning purposes,
according to the Department of Education.
Those districts wanting to review their share of last year’s
curtailment in order to do that calculation can click on: http://www.maine.gov/education/data/eps/fy09/gpa_fy09_curtailment_1121.pdf
Read
more...
Fall
Conference Photos
Click below to see
photos from last month's
conference. Be patient. It takes a while to
download.
Conference
Photos...
Preparing
for repeal vote
Education
Commissioner Susan Gendron told the Education Committee
the Legislature needs to act quickly if voters repeal mandatory school
consolidation on the November ballot to assure a smooth transition
back to the statues that were in place before the controversial law
was passed.
Read
more...
Superintendents
prepare for cuts
Education
Commissioner Susan Gendron has warned superintendents they
could be looking at a cut in state funding for education that
is as bad or worse than the $27 million curtailment ordered by
the governor last year.
Read
more..
School side
to budget crisis
The presidents of MSBA and MSSA
respond to legislative criticism and explain how schools are doing
their part to deal with the state's fiscal crisis, as state aid
continues to drop. Read their opinion piece published in the Bangor
Daily News.
Read
more..
Legislative
Roundup 2009
The first session of the 124th
Legislature dealt with more than 150 bills affecting K-12 education.
Follow this link to see what passed, what failed and what is being
carried over for further consideration.
Read more..
Has EPS funding
formula worked?
This is the
10-year anniversary of the State Board of Education
special committee report that outlined the Essential
Programs and Services funding formula. Put into practice
in 2005, the law remains controversial and debate
continues about whether it is achieving its purpose of
equitable funding and opportunity or needs to be changed.
Read
more...
Governor signs
penalty delay
Gov. John Baldacci on June 19 signed into law
a bill that delays penalties for districts that did not
vote to consolidate – legislation that was
overwhelmingly supported in the Legislature.
Read
more..
Charters
defeated, penalties delayed
The Legislature on June 9 gave the necessary two-thirds
support to pass a proposal that delays penalties for those that did
not vote to consolidate. On June 8, the Senate, in a 20-to-14
vote, killed a bill that would have allowed charter schools in
Maine.
Read
more..
Legislature
passes $5.8 billion budget
The House and Senate today passed the biennial budget with
strong bipartisan support, and leaders in both parties said it
represented the tough choices needed to deal with the reality of an
economy in deep recession – a reality that would have been harsher
without federal stimulus money.
Read
more..
Graduation bill
needs more work
The Education Committee May 21 voted
unanimously to amend the Department of Education’s
proposed graduation requirements bill, stripping out
everything except the approval of multiple pathways –
including Career and Technical Education – to earn a
diploma and the need to have interventions throughout all
grade levels to help students before they fail.
Read
more...
Committee rejects
charters 8-to-5
The Education Committee May 20
voted 8-to-5 against a proposal that would allow charter
schools in Maine – a bill opposed by MSBA and MSMA
because the specialized schools would take money away
from the public school system without being required to
operate under the same rules.
Read
more...
Retirement
amendment pulled
A proposal that
would have moved $128 million in teacher-retirement money
out of a retirement account and into GPA was pulled out
of the budget Monday night by the Appropriations
Committee, which decided instead to authorize a study
that will look at how teacher retirement should be funded
down the road.
Read more...
Teacher
retirement cost shift?
The Appropriations Committee has
approved a surprise amendment to the biennial budget that pulls $128
million out of the teacher retirement account and puts it into the
account for General Purpose Aid, paving the way for a possible
change in the law that would require local taxpayers to pick up part
of the retirement costs now paid 100 percent by the state.
Read
more...
Legislature
to vote on budget
The
Legislature is expected to vote on the proposed biennial
budget next week, including
school aid that keeps districts at the levels promised in their 279s
for 2009-2010 and language allowing expansion of the laptop program
into the high school – a plan the Education Committee says should
come with the warning “buyer beware,"
Read
more...
Malin
on national board
Kristin
Malin, past president of Maine School Boards Association, has been
elected to the board of directors of the National School Boards
Association, representing the Northeast Region.
The election took place in early April at the NSBA’s annual
convention in San Diego.
Read more... Cuts
made to GPA
Gov. John Baldacci has a plan to fill an
additional $570 million hole in the proposed biennial budget that
keeps K-12 education funding for the current fiscal year and fiscal
year 2010 at promised levels, but cuts 2011 by $55 million from the
previous year.
The funding levels are a combination of state General Purpose Aid
and $129 million in federal stimulus money over the three years.
Read more... Charter
schools opposed
The Maine School Boards Association and Maine School
Superintendents Association testified on May 5 in opposition to a
bill that would permit charter schools in Maine.
MSBA President Erica Kimball and Superintendent Patricia Hopkins, of
the Five Town CSD and MSAD 28, told the Education Committee that
charter schools would take away already limited funding for existing
schools in the state.
Read more...
Committee
splits on consolidation repeal
The Education Committee voted 8-to-5 against recommending
legislation that would repeal the state’s school consolidation law
– a split vote that means the bill will be debated on the
legislative floor.
If it is not passed by the full Legislature, the proposal, initiated
by a citizen’s petition, will go to the voters in November. The
bill has not yet been scheduled for a full legislative review.
Read more...
State now has more than 200 school districts
Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told the Education Committee Monday that based on the latest round of voting the state would have around 200 school districts come July 1, rather than the 80 called for in the consolidation law. Read more... Voters give
school consolidation a mixed review
With the debate over school consolidation starting up again in the Legislature, the Department of Education’s numbers show nearly 50 percent of existing school units – 144 out of 290 – have said no to the mandate.
Read more... State falling behind on
55 percent funding obligation
While voters in 2004 approved a referendum question calling for the state to pick up 55 percent of the cost of K-12 education, the governor’s proposal to balance the current year’s budget calls for the state to shoulder just over 51 percent and that could drop to 48 percent by fiscal year 2011. Read more...
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