To Scott Porter, the superintendent of the Machias Bay Area School System, or AOS 96, it’s clear that the state’s model of funding schools needs to be updated.
Maine’s Essential Programs and Services formula, a decades-old model that estimates the minimum cost of a basic education in Maine schools, is used to determine how much of a school’s budget is the responsibility of the state and how much falls to local taxpayers.
Porter and other superintendents claim the equation does not adequately account for challenges like increased special education needs and staffing issues. They also pointed to the ways in which rising property values can push the state share down, further constraining school budgets.
The Maine Education Policy Research Institute was charged by the Legislature to look into several components of the formula, and has been briefing the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee on its study. So far, the group has highlighted several findings: Total spending on public schools has risen faster than inflation as students’ needs rise and enrollments decline, and schools raised $600 million above what the formula deemed necessary.
As lawmakers review the EPS formula, schools across Maine are contending with another budget season, and with that comes the understanding that some districts may see decreases in state funding while others may get more.
The share paid by the state covers 55 percent of all EPS funding in Maine, but most districts do not receive this much. A Maine Monitor analysis of 2024-2025 data found that a majority of schools receive less than this amount from the state. According to preliminary 2025-2026 figures, about 40 percent of Maine’s districts will see their state share decrease next year.
The minimum funding amount for each district is calculated each year by looking at enrollment, operation costs, transportation needs and other factors to determine the cost of education needed to achieve the Maine Learning Results, a state standard for education. Components like local property values, demographics and how much a school spent on special education services the prior year can also impact funding.
The formula was established in 2004 and was based on what the state considers to be a school’s basic needs, though many school districts spend significantly more than this. MEPRI co-director Amy Johnson explained that EPS funding is a “minimum floor, not the ceiling.”
The fluctuating nature of the EPS funding in some towns can be challenging, however, particularly as property values are rising.
In Porter’s consolidated district — which serves 11 towns — there has been a steady increase in property values over the course of the past decade, according to state valuation data.
In Machias, which has the largest school district in AOS 96, valuations increased by about 28 percent between the 2023 and 2025 fiscal years. However, higher property valuations do not necessarily mean communities can afford tax increases, Porter said.
“What happens is you have people that are land rich and cash poor,” Porter said. “Like people that have had saltwater farms handed down from generation to generation. People didn’t really think much of oceanfront property 50 years ago like they do now, so oceanfront property has really driven up the total valuation of towns dramatically.”
The towns in AOS 96 — Cutler, East Machias, Jonesboro, Machias, Machiasport, Marshfield, Northfield, Roque Bluffs, Wesley, Whiting and Whitneyville — run their own schools and share a central administrative office.
This year, some schools were “minimum receivers,” meaning the state covers a much smaller portion of EPS. Whiting, for instance, received just $63,580 out of its half million dollar EPS budget, though next year, the town gets more than $36,000 more.
Towns like Machias have done okay with the funding model since its valuations have not spiked until now, Porter said. The town also has much less waterfront property compared to its oceanside neighbors.
This year, Machias received about $4.5 million — a nearly $789,000 increase from the year prior — from the state, but will lose about $110,000 next year. While this may seem like a minor change compared to the large amount the state is sending, shifts in funds can place pressure on town budgets to account for the loss.
“Most of the time when we lose funding, we try to cut budget items so there isn’t an increased tax burden on our communities,” Porter said. “The problem is, we have very limited staff and services, so there is not much to cut without eliminating staff.”
Porter said the funding decrease was partly because special education costs for the school district went down. He said costs dipped because the school could not find long term staff, and substitute personnel aren’t paid as much as permanent workers.
The Bonny Eagle School District, or MSAD 6, which covers Buxton, Standish and several other towns near Sebago Lake, received $22.7 million — nearly 50 percent of its minimum budget — from the state this year.
Next year, that will jump up by about $1.5 million. Superintendent Clay Gleason said that while the increase is welcome, operating costs have also risen. When a funding year is not in a school’s favor, districts may need to account for a substantial amount of money they had the previous year.
He added that the EPS funding formula does not fully pay for several school functions that parents see as a staple to a good education: sports programs, advanced classes such as AP coursework, electives, behavioral services and more. It funds what the state determined to be a basic education based on parameters set decades ago.
“So what does that mean now, 20 years later? What’s basic? Now, the needs of what kids and parents are expecting in a school is different than 20 years ago,” Gleason said. “And it may be, in my mind, more that the formula has just become maybe a little bit obsolete.”
This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from the Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.
