LePage's school funding plan faces dozens of critics at State House hearing

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage’s two-year spending plan for public schools drew a barrage of criticism from dozens of parents, school board officials, teachers and others during a public hearing at the State House Friday.

The education funding package is part of LePage’s two-year state budget proposal now under review by the Legislature’s Appropriations and Education committees, which heard from LePage administration officials as well as critics of the plan during the joint hearing.

LePage’s budget plan would spend about $1 billion of state funds on public schools in the next budget cycle, about $20 million, 2 percent, less than the state spent in this cycle on public schools. State spending on schools in the LePage proposal represents about one seventh of the total $6.8 billion budget plan being offered by the governor.

The LePage administration said the plan will redirect more funds away from administrative costs and into Maine’s classrooms, create incentives for school districts to regionalize operations and open the door to more publicly funded charter schools.

Read more: http://www.centralmaine.com/2017/03/03/lepages-school-funding-plan-faces-critics-state-house-hearing/