It is still a popular claim that high administrative costs, particularly school superintendent expenses, are the primary factor responsible for increasing K-12 education spending in Maine. There are compelling data, from a variety of reputable sources, that clearly show this to not be the case.
According to figures from the Maine Department of Education website, system administration (central office) expenditures have dropped by 7.7 percent in the last 10 years. Maine law requires every local entity to have a superintendent even if the town or entity has no students. We have 136 superintendents, some of whom represent the unique needs of small towns and townships on a part-time basis for a nominal stipend.
In 2014, Maine’s 136 superintendents earned $12,230,712, for an average salary of $89,932. The average salary of the bottom 25 earners was $24,077. If we were to eliminate the lowest paid 25 superintendents in the state, or 18 percent of superintendents, we would save a whopping $601,946 out of a $1 billion state education budget. Even with Maine’s decline in student population, there are more students per administrator today than there were 10 years ago.
When we examine all administrative costs, including central office, school-level administration, finance office and school board costs, a recent report prepared by the National Council of State Legislatures, or NCSL, shows that Maine spends 10.59 percent of its education dollars on administration. The national average is 10.57 percent. This is a significant statistic, given our geographic challenges.
Maine has relatively few pupils per square mile when compared to most states, making it difficult to compare favorably when calculating costs solely on a per-pupil basis. For example, in 2013 Florida had 2,432,147 students while Maine had 182,175. Dade County alone had 306,142 students and spent $496 per pupil on administrative costs. Maine spent roughly $950 per pupil. By simply comparing our per-pupil expenditures to Dade County, some would reach the conclusion that we are overspending. But when we look at more rural counties in Florida, such as Jefferson and Franklin, we see that they spent $1,328 and $1,743 per pupil respectively!
Another way to look at it comes from a BDN article last year in which former Maine Commissioner of Education Steve Bowen claims that Maine can save millions by having regional administration service centers. He uses the example of Ohio to make his case. Using a strict-cost, per-pupil calculation, this looks plausible. A closer look reveals that Ohio has 1,858,716 students and 44,825 square miles of land, or 41.46 students per square mile. Maine has just 178,000 pupils within 35,385 square miles, or 5.03 students per square mile. When we check the NCSL report we see that Ohio spends 12.45 percent of its educational dollars on administration, compared with Maine’s 10.59 percent.
So where are we spending our K-12 dollars in Maine? An April 2015 report done by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute tells us that spending on K-12 education is up only 2 percent over the past decade when adjusted for inflation.
But in the past decade, spending in the “student and staff support” category has risen over 40 percent above inflation, to $172 million from $97 million. This increase was largely fueled by the constant changing of standards, testing and curriculum, and the adoption of complex data collection systems.
Another cost center that has seen astronomical growth is special education. In the last decade the number of special education pupils has dropped by almost 5,000, a 14.5 percent decline. At the same time, special education expenditures have increased 17 percent over inflation. (This is a major factor in explaining why education costs increase despite having fewer pupils.)
Why does it feel like costs are spiraling?
In just the past five years the local required mills for education (the local tax assessed on $1,000 of property value to fund education and required in order to receive state education aid) have gone from 6.69 to 8.23. This represents nearly $200 million in education spending that must be picked up by local property owners in order for towns to receive their base subsidy. Another way to say it is that the cost of education is increasing while the state aid percentage of that cost is not keeping pace. The proposed local required mill rate for the 2016-17 school year is 8.44, once again shifting a greater share of education costs to property owners. Locals are now required to pay the state share of the employer contribution to the state teacher retirement system — $38 million — as well.
Homeowners are not the only ones affected. Businesses, large and small, that do not have special exemptions are being affected as well. Take this recent excerpt from a recent MaineBiz article on the Maine Pulp and Paper Association’s Nov. 17, 2015, summit in Bangor:
“Property taxes are another high benchmark cost for Maine paper mills, says Jon Block, a tax attorney at Pierce Atwood and moderator of the summit’s tax policy discussion. One paper company, he says, collectively pays $10.6 million in annual property taxes for six operating mills outside Maine and $7.4 million for its one mill in Maine. That kind of disparity, he says, inevitably puts a red flag on the P&L statements of Maine mills owned by companies with mills paying lower taxes elsewhere.”
We would be wise to use readily available data — not popular, but unsubstantiated, claims — and follow the leads in the MEPRI report as we seek to craft future policy.
Rep. Paul Stearns, R-Guilford, is serving his first term in the Maine House. A member of the Legislature’s Education Committee, he is a former school superintendent and former president of the Maine School Superintendents’ Association.