Adequacy-Based Funding for Small, Isolated Schools: An Approach for Maine

How to adequately fund small schools is becoming a pressing issue in Maine due to numerous factors, including state and federal accountability laws and declining enrollments. The Maine Planning office projects a decrease of 12.5 % in school-age enrollment throughout the state between October 1, 2004 and October 1, 2013. Four Maine counties are predicted to experience declines in resident enrollment of over 20%. (Maine Department of Education, 2004). Moreover, small schools are expected to be among the hardest hit by enrollment losses. Schools with fewer than 300 students are expected to average approximately a 20 % drop in enrollment. Among the changes on the horizon in Maine in addition to declining enrollments are additional state requirements pertaining to Maine’s Learning Results, and new Federal accountability requirements due the No Child Left Behind law. Along with high per-pupil costs, small schools in rural areas are often challenged in ways that may impact their ability to operate efficiently while meeting the state and federal accountability requirements. Mathis (2003