Colpitts urges attendance at EPS hearing

OXFORD — A bill that would excuse school districts from fully funding their local share for education is going in front of the Legislature's education committee March 13, according to SAD 17 Superintendent Rick Colpitts. 

During the SAD 17 board meeting March 4, Colpitts encouraged board members to attend the committee's hearing to support LD 367, sponsored by Senator Jim Hamper (R-Oxford).

State statute obligates the state to fund 55 percent of K-12 education, but in reality, it only fulfills around 84 percent of that commitment.

A law that went into effect in 2010 allows districts to fund the local share to the same percentage the state does, excusing them from raising the full amount required by EPS.

That waiver is set to expire this year, but LD 367 would erase the law's "sunset clause," essentially making the waiver permanent.

Last year the district raised $1.8 million less than required under the state's EPS model.

District officials have warned that raising the full local share could result in an 11-percent hike on local taxes, an increase town officials say some taxpayers cannot withstand.

In January, Deputy Education Commissioner Jim Rier said Governor Paul LePage's biennial budget included an year's extension of the current waiver, but there is no certainty it will be included in a final state budget.

During the March 4 meeting, Colpitts said local selectmen were being invited to Augusta to attend the hearing to explain the impact full local funding would have on their towns.

Colpitts and others have previously admitted Hamper's bill may face an uphill battle in Augusta, as the majority of Maine's school districts raise at or above the minimum requirement determined by EPS.