As long as the independent schools exist they highlight the incompetence of the public schools. Part of Susan Gendron's plan is to kill off the independent schools so they don't spotlight the state's failures.

Judd don't worry your have enough students that come from "away" you can deal with the loss... just tighten up abit or get more foreign students.. maybe not give the staff raises or take away some of the staff altogether... seems like when I was there the office was over staffed.. Maybe you can even find a bus driver who will get the students to school on time..

yeah good idea proudmainemom...because washington county hasn't lost enough jobs already. get a clue.

Money changes everything.

Mr Griffin - I believe the Headmaster's last name is McBrine not McBride !

300 of which are public? Of that 300 how many of these come from town with high schools? The town does not pay for these kids but the schools pay because of less kids means less state money. How many scholarship are offered to kids from towns with public high schools? Sorry I cannot feel bad for a school that recruits from surrounding areas and hurt other schools by taking their students. I do feel bad for the towns that have to pay for their kids to go to school at WA and are being hurt by the cuts.

Just my opinion.

Are the private academies even legal under federal law? I'm not bashing them but I don't believe them to be legal and public funding should not be used to send students there. Not to target any one in particular, but Lee Academy must be doing alright because it's opening branches in China. Maybe the others should consider opening branch campuses to make up for losses. And Susan Gendron sucks.

Gettingby...By saying "just my opinion" ...it takes all the power out of your argument. An opinion is statment made by using facts plus logic. If you have the facts and are using logic, be proud of your opinion!!

Are public schools allowed to conduct capital campaigns or annual fund drives? This whole public/private business with independent schools in Maine bothers me to no end. I'm sure each school is a little different, but some of them don't even have open board meetings. They gladly accept public funds, but good luck getting a copy of their budget to see what they're doing with it. Have a concern about their focus on international students instead of increasing the quality of programming offered? Nope, you have no say. That's just your tax dollars over there, plus a healthy dose of private fund raiser money. Three cheers for Gettingby's comment. I feel bad for the towns, not the academies.

secstate, if the school is tax-exempt they are required by law to allow anyone who requests it to see their tax returns. If you have a particular school in mind you can go to this website to see nonprofit IRS Form 990's filed for previous years: http://www.guidestar.org/

You might have to register but it's free.

In response to the question,

"Are public schools allowed to conduct capital campaigns or annual fund drives?"

Yes. It's called raising property taxes. Unlike a "fundraiser" they decide how much you have to give.

In reference to other comments. Academies draw primarily from towns that don't have their own high schools (There may be one local exception to this). The cost of a new high school for those towns can run from 40 million upwards depending on the number of bells and whistles that a community wants to spend money on. The IVF money in the article is basically equivalent to rent for privately owned facilities. An interesting thing about the IVF paradigm v. the public school lottery for new buildings.... if you go to an academy, you will see buildings in use that are sometimes more than 100 years old and are well maintained because academies know they will never have the option to build a new campus all at once. At age 50, I am old enough to see some towns in Maine on their second new public high school building in my lifetime. Where is the incentive to take care of facilities when the public school lottery system can buy a whole new building every generation or so? Re: fundraising and capital campaigns ... Boosters programs are fundraising efforts that all high schools (public and private) use to support athletics and arts programs because the State does not provide enough for either. And there are public high schools who have used private capital money for their facilities. That is how Camden Hills High School got a brand new state of the art theatre. Taxes (yours and mine) pay for new public schools through the lottery. Capital Campaigns at least give people a choice about whether or not to support a new building project. Perhaps we should do away with the public school lottery program and put all schools on the IVF paradigm? Then maybe everyone would be more motivated to take care of what they have... Remember too, academies have been around longer than public schools. For many towns, they are the only high school those towns have ever known. Why shouldn't Maine children in those towns be allowed to go to the same school their parents, grandparents, and great grand parents attended? Town academies have been going strong since before Maine was a state. The DOE should look at them as a treasure and a great fiscal deal, not a set of intitutions to target disproportionately in hard times. Imagine the cost of 10 new high schools to replace them!

Thank You, Kayaker!

The point to remember is for the people served by the Town Academies, or 'private schools' as some stated (which is not entirely true), it is not a choice to the residents of the town rther their only option for a high school The MPA does not allow for 'recruiting' of kids from other towns so unless the town academy offers something specific that would probably draw the student from another town anyway, recruiting State of Maine kids is very rare. The population of the boarding students is very limited with domestic students rather those who come to the US for what they feel is a better education from what they would receive in their home country. For those who CHOOSE to pay a day tuition, that is the parents choice, and yes there are scholarships which support that, and how does that hurt those from other schools again?

A coupld final points:

1) Private Academies are not 100% private schools, which is a common misconception. They receive money from the district to offset that it is the only high school serving that district of several towns.

2) Would they survive for 100 plus years and not be legal? Seriously?

Newskid,

Before you question their legality based on the amount of time that they've existed, look into the matter. It used to be legal to deny people the right to vote and if we hadn't changed that, it still would be legal. Unless a school is administrated by a public board, it is private. Even if it receives public money, it is 100% private. Just look at the stir caused at MCI a few years ago about the dress code. The headmaster was right when she said that surrounding communities had no voice (paraphrasing) about the issue since MCI was and is a private school. The word tuition sums it up. It's not like Old Town and Orono who accept tuitioned students from other municipalities. Those are public schools, the academies are not.

Honestly, I know that MCI gets reimbursed by the local school district for all special education costs - - including reimbursement of MCI staff salaries

for special education teachers and ed. techs. I don't know what Judd is talking about in regards to special education costs. The towns that the kids belong to hold responsibility for their education, inclucing their special education programs, which includes all costs. And, if the private school does not follow the IEP, it's the local town/school district that gets sued. Hmmmm - don't know what he's tallking about in terms of increased special education costs for WA.

anne of midi is right about guidestar.org. You can check out headmaster salaries (especially Foxcroft and Washington Academies)...then you won't

feel sorry for these private schools!

Spike1

Is there anything in this article that is close to being accurate? Think about this. Mr. McBride is not just a principal for WA, but apparently a lobbyist for private schools (president of the Maine Independent School Association). As such, his comments in the article should be scrutinized for facts just as you would a lobbyist for any other private institution.

Misrepresentation #1 - Mr. McBride cries that changes in state funding have created unintended hardships for private schools. All they lost was $400 per student in IVF funds. Big deal. Compared to the loss of subsidy in the current fiscal year, flat funding for the next 2 years, and the penalty for not consolidating that some towns face, the loss of funding to public schools dwarfs the loss to private schools.

Misrepresentation #2 - Mr. McBride conveniently leaves out the fact that although IVF funds are SUPPOSED to be used for capital projects, there is absolutely no requirement that they are or accounting system to track these funds. A private school can use those funds for their wiffleball club if they wanted to. Many private schools spend huge sums of money on marketing - look at the recent issue of Down East magazine to see what I mean. Plus, if WA was actually setting aside these funds for future projects, how is the loss of these funds impacting education this year?

Misrepresentation #3 - While the private schools may have lost $400 per student this year in IVF funds, their approved tuition rate increased from $8039 last year to $8553 this year. That's $514 more per student than last year, more than offsetting the loss in IVF funds.

Misrepresentation #4 - Mr. McBride states that private schools do not receive subsidy for transportation, debt service, special education, or vocational education. His comments make it sound like the private schools are getting a raw deal. Why should the private schools receive subsidy for transportation when the sending towns are providing the transportation? The purpose of the IVF funds is to make up for lack of debt service. The sending towns receive the SPED money and then pass it on to the private school so they do get it (except for the elitist private schools - John Bapst - Erskine - who discriminate against SPED students in the admissions process). And the vocational funding goes to the VOC school that is providing the training, not the private school. DUH!

Misrepresentation #5 - Private schools provide a strong education at a lower cost to taxpayers than public schools? Please! Look at the figures on the DOE website at the link below:

http://www.maine.gov/education/data/tuitionrates/tui09/rates.html

Out of the 17 private high schools, every single one of them is receiving the maximum tuition amount possible that the state will allow, $8553.19 plus $427.66 IVF for a grand total of $8980.85. Compare that to the public schools in the Bangor area:

Bangor ($8278), Hampden ($7997), Hermon ($7721), Old Town ($7533), and Brewer ($7406). So private schools are receiving up to $1500 MORE than some public schools. Doesn't sound like quite the bargain that Mr. McBride makes it out to be.

I just hope that when the private school crybabies testified before the legislature today our elected officials were able to see through this BS. The IVF funds are a scam and need to be done away with.

GlendonRand, thank you.

WA does recruit from surrounding towns with high schools that is fact not my opinion. These student are given scholarships to ease the parents burden of sending them to WA.

Did they misspell Judd's last name? Mr Griffin, I think a little research before you interview would be a neat thing. Ask some tough questions, like how to spell his last name, maybe he gave you the wrong name to protect the innocent.

Do not feel bad for these school, just the communities they serve.

www.guidestar.org, please look into this stuff.

Washington Academy

Washington Academy

Headmaster made $115,021.00 in 2007

Asst Headmaster made $82,628.00 in 2007

Development Director made $62,059.00

WA also spent $69,761on marketing and advertising.

I'm sure they all made more money last year. This is all public record, I thought anyone interested in this subject should have a little more back ground.

As for MCI and Lee, they are a little different. They did do the interview. They are also a prep school.

How about cutting some salaries, trim the fat. What does the Development Director do? I pretty sure this is not a teaching position.

Nice work if you can get it! P.S. A Development Director is the head of fundraising.

???

anne, I figured as much, so the DD also had $69,000 budget to work with. HUMMMMM.

I sure the public schools around Washington County would love to have that kind of money.

Could someone compare their cuts with a public school in the same area?

Also how much do out of state students pay for tuition? foreign students?

Gettingby, well technically that is just the DoD's salary. He or she probably also had an additional departmental budget to work with.

As a parent who tuitioned a child to WA I say all those that bash the school for supposedly taking away from a public school this: If that public school had been up to standard and had offered the same chance for my child with regard to math and sciences then I would have kept them in their own district. However, that was not the case. Good intelligent children have no chance to be challenged in public schools these days or at least the ones in Washington County. Yes WA takes foreign students and they receive a handsome tuition for each and every one of them. And with that tuition they can pay a decent headmater's salary and pay teachers well and the office support staff as well. In addition to decent salaries-which lets face it are few and far between in this county--the tuitioned students afford the school monies for advanced classes regularly and more or a variety of core classes as well. I stand by my choice for my son and the education he received there will see him thru college and life.

downeaster2009, did you read the article? The headmaster of WA is asking for more. Every school in Maine has been hit and some harder than others. I do not believe that WA has been hit as hard as public schools have, do you? You chose to have your child go to WA and that is your business. Do you still pay taxes in the town in which you live? yes you do. Did your child get a scholarship to go to WA or did you pay for all of your child's tuition? Your right it is none of our business, but answer if you want. WA does charge the max the state allows, did you know that? I wonder how much is the max scholarship allowed to be given by these private schools.

I am all for people making money, make as much as you can, just do not come looking for more when everyone is struggling.

I am sure every school in Maine would like to have some money back from what has been taken from them, some school's would also like to be compensated for the students they have lost to private schools.

Getting by is presenting an incomplete picture ... you are focusing on tuition figures in only one region of the State. If you look toward the south of the state, the opposite is true ... academies often function on less than the public schools in the surrounding towns. Also, the academy tuition figure is based on the State's average tuition. When you calcutate the true per pupil expenditure of the public schools it is often much higher than the tuition figure. Unlike the academies, public schools are allowed to go to their municipalities and ask for more money AND they get to know their budget before the school year starts based on estimated (and often inflated) enrollment projections. If the number of students who actually attend a public school that year is lower than the projection, the true per pupil cost is higher. Public schools do not give money back to their towns if their enrollment projections fall short. On the other hand, academies are given their tuition number by the DOE half way through the school year, after the fact, cannot request more money from towns, and only charge for the students who actually attend the school and for the length of time that the student attends. This can be different if an academy has a contract with a town and in that case, maximum allowable tuition is not always charged... The figures you quote are what is allowed, not automatically what happens. Also, when the DOE chopped IVF, they did not chop an equivalent amount from the construction monies for public schools, nor did they change the rules of the game in the middle and position public schools to default on construction loans the way they did to the academies by cutting IVF..

Gettingby, You do not think public schools do not cry for money? One WA story and you attack them.. I can send my daughter to one of three school and I would not send her to any other school.. An yes I have sent one of my childen to a public school, and I can tell you that it was not good for her.

No my taxs pay for her to go to W A, not a scholarship. before you ask me.

Last time I checked Jonesboro did not have a public school. I would not ask you if your child was awarded a scholarship, but who knows if you had a public school in your town maybe she would have been. You have the right to send your child to school where ever you chose, but I do not feel as if I should have to support a private school. As I said before I feel bad for the towns that have to pay more because tuition is so expensive, but if you chose to send your child to a private school, please do not get on here and ask for more. Every parent wants what is best for their children most parents cannot afford to send their children to a private school.

I feel it is just wrong for "Mr McBride" to complain about how much funding they are receiving from the state. The local towns should receive money to ease their burden, if they have to send their children to school at WA. WA should not receive any state money. In fact WA should reimburse towns with high school that have children attending WA. The public schools are loosing money when children leave to go to WA or other private schools. Some of the money schools receive is based on enrollment the lower the enrollment the less money the school receives from the state.

I thought Jonesboro had an elementary school. Did they close it? They didn't have a high school they went to Machias or WA.

That's what we are talking about, high school.