A Snapshot of Education in Maine

An array of facts about Maine's public school system.

Students and Teachers

After peaking in the 1970s at close to 250,000 students, public school enrollment in Maine has been declining steadily since. While projections are elusive, it's generally expected that enrollment will bottom out in the next few years and then begin to rise again, but at a much slower pace than that of the recent decline.

• Maine's public schools educated 186,906 students as of April 1, 2011. The schools they attend employ 16,450 teachers and 35,487 other staff members. In 1998, there were 214,842 students.
• During the 2010-11 school year, 13,489 students attended private schools, and 4,777 students were home-schooled.
• Maine's public-school students attend school in 164 school administrative units run by 120 superintendents. Those units operated 604 public schools during the 2010-11 school year.
• For 2009-10, Maine high schools recorded a graduation rate of 82.82 percent and a dropout rate of 3.46 percent.

State Education Funding

Funding for education is a shared state and local responsibility. State funding to local school districts is based primarily on the Essential Programs and Services (EPS) formula. The Department of Education uses the formula to calculate the amount a district should expect to spend to provide an "adequate" education aligned with the Maine Learning Results academic standards, and determines the portion the state will pay based on available funds and local factors such as student enrollment and property values.

• Maine is distributing $893 million in general purpose aid to its public school units during the 2011-12 academic year.
• Since the 2005-06 academic year, the state-funded share of the total EPS-determined cost of education has ranged from 44 percent in 2011-12 to 53 percent in 2008-09.
• For 2011-12, while state funds cover 44 percent of the aggregate EPS-determined cost of education, they cover as little as 0.77 percent and as much as 99 percent of EPS-determined costs in individual districts.

Student Achievement

Maine students perform well overall nationally, typically ranking in the top tier of states by most national measures. However, Maine still isn't where it should be. For example, only 32 percent of Maine's fourth graders scored proficient or better in reading on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Statewide, there's been little improvement, and there are early indications of a possible decline in Maine's reading scores. A sortable Student Achievement and Progress List developed in 2011 shows three-year combined proficiency rates in reading and math for Maine schools with sufficient testing data. Many schools are not making sufficient progress and/or have low achievement rates. For example, only a quarter of our high schools have at least a 50 percent combined proficiency rate in reading and math.