PORTLAND — A proposal by Gov. Paul LePage to expand school choice options could cost Portland’s public schools millions of dollars in funding, Portland officials said Friday.

Superintendent Jim Morse said Maine’s largest school district is especially vulnerable because numerous private and public schools are in its geographic area.

“It’s a tragic error that the governor has put that on the table,” Morse said.

Mayor Michael Brennan said that building opposition to the plan in the Legislature is among his top priorities.

The governor’s proposal would allow state and local tax dollars to shift to private schools, religious schools and public schools in other districts.

The administration believes that giving students more choice would foster competition and allow students to attend schools best suited for their educational needs, said Matthew Stone, spokesman for the Maine Department of Education.

He said the administration wants to move away from a system in which the district line is the primary determinant of where a student attends school and the parents’ income dictates whether the child can attend a private school.

“We want a system where every kid, to the extent possible, has the same opportunities,” Stone said.

The administration introduced the proposal on Feb. 8 and is still drafting legislation, which is supported by many religious school leaders, who say they would welcome the additional revenue if some of their students came with public tuition dollars.

The legislative initiative would overturn a long-standing state law that bans public funding for religious schools.

Sister Rosemary Donohue, superintendent of Catholic schools in Maine, said in a written statement that she would like parents of Catholic school students to see some of their tax dollars used to support their children’s education.

LePage’s plan also would expand access to public funding for secular private schools, some of which already receive money from public school districts that don’t have high schools.

The plan would allow public schools to be designated as “schools of choice” and enroll students from other districts without approval from those districts.

Currently, students can attend school outside the districts where they live if they have both superintendents’ approval.

LePage’s plan calls for state and local education money to follow students to the schools they attend.

For example, if a child from Portland attended a school in Cape Elizabeth, then Cape Elizabeth would receive $1,200 in state money for that student. Cape Elizabeth taxpayers would pay the rest of the cost of educating the child.

If a child from Portland attended a qualified private school, the state and the city would give the school about the same amount of money that would have been spent if the child had remained in Portland schools. The parents would pay the rest.

Private and public “schools of choice” would be able to limit the number of students they accept through a lottery system.

While the proposal would affect other districts, Portland would be particularly affected because several private schools are in or near the city, and other public school districts surround it, Brennan said.

At the same time, Portland schools face competition from the state’s first charter school, the Baxter Academy for Technology and Science, which is proposing to operate in a 20,000-square-foot building on York Street and draw “hundreds” of students from Portland schools, Brennan said.

While Portland’s schools are good enough to attract students from other districts, he said, he worries that many middle-class families could decide to send their children elsewhere.

“It would potentially take away from the social and economic diversity that is now the strength of Portland schools,” Brennan said.

Morse said about 800 children who live in Portland attend private schools.

He said that, under LePage’s proposal, Portland would lose $10,000 per student, including state funds and local tax dollars.

Redirecting that much money to private schools would be “crippling” to the city’s public school system, Morse said.

“We’d still have 7,000 kids still sitting there, but we would have $8 million less to support them,” Morse said.

South Portland is in a similar situation, said Kathy Germani, assistant superintendent of the city’s schools.

“We are in such close proximity to each other,” she said. “There’s a lot more capability for the students to look at the next district to see what’s available.”

However, the proposal includes no apparent incentive for public schools to accept students from other districts, because local taxpayers would pay most of the cost, said Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Meredith Nadeau.

Because of its high property values, Cape Elizabeth receives only $1,200 in state aid for each student.

“Financially, there is no reason to sign up to become a school of choice,” Nadeau said. “It would not be in the best interest of local taxpayers.”

There are three Catholic schools in Portland: Cheverus High School, Catherine McAuley High School and St. Brigid School.

Donohue, the superintendent of Catholic schools, said she is eager to see the proposed legislation because she wonders if Catholic schools would be approved for funding.

Although state education officials say religious schools wouldn’t have to follow the Maine Learning Results academic standards to qualify for public funding, the schools would have to adopt reporting and auditing practices similar to those of public schools, and all teachers would have to be state-certified, which would drive up salaries and operating costs.

Staff Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:

tbell@mainetoday.com

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