An Act To Create Fair Education Funding for Regional School Units
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §15696, sub-§2 is enacted to read:
2. Redistribution of calculated adjustments. The commissioner shall calculate the total amount of adjustments to the calculation of subsidy that would have been made under subsection 1 for school administrative units that were not conforming school administrative units for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2009 if subsection 1 applied to that fiscal year. The resulting total amount of calculated adjustments for that fiscal year must be added to the total subsidy that is available for distribution for that fiscal year to school administrative units that were conforming school administrative units for that fiscal year to assist with the costs of reorganization. The subsidy for school administrative units that were not conforming units for that fiscal year may not be reduced as a result of this subsection.
summary
This bill requires that the State calculate, based on the original date that school units were required to comply with the school consolidation laws, the reduction in state funding that would have applied to nonconforming school units if penalties had been assessed and requires the State to distribute that amount of funds to those regional school units that successfully completed the process of reorganization in order to comply with the school consolidation laws.