Funding For Success: The Cost of Delivering a Quality Education In Maine’s Small Rural Secondary Schools

Larger schools may benefit from economies of scale, but the geographic makeup of Maine requires the existence of small rural schools in isolated or sparsely populated areas. The study focused on both the issue of size and geographic isolation. School, community, and student characteristics were used in a regression analysis to identify the enrollment threshold at which per-pupil expenditures rise to the point where an amount that might be adequate in a larger school would be inadequate in a smaller school. The results of this analysis suggest that schools with fewer than 600 students spend more per pupil relative to estimated costs with an adequacy model, and schools with fewer than 100 students spend the most relative to estimated costs. Road miles were used to determine how far students may be expected to travel to their high schools. 3 In 1997 Maine developed Learning Results, a set of educational standard