In 1990, Maine’s economy took a dive.

After the boom times of the late 1980s, the state’s housing market tumbled. Retail sales were down; unemployment was up. A recession hit full force.

To help save money, Maine slashed state aid to public schools. Halfway through the school year it took $14 million from the $523 million education fund.

Without warning, school officials had to cut deep into their budgets. Because the announcement came well into the school year, they already had hired teachers and spent much of the money. Many officials didn’t know what to do.

“Districts were having to scramble to cover payroll. Districts were having to borrow money to cover payroll,” said Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, who was an assistant superintendent in Scarborough at the time.

Poor school systems that relied most on state help were hit hardest.

“For one district, it was a couple of teaching positions. For another, wealthier district, it was postage money,” said SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman, who ran Mars Hill’s SAD 42 in the early 1990s. A small district in Aroostook County, SAD 42 received most of its funding from the state and lost $35,000 out of its $2 million budget halfway through the year.

Bad to worse

After 1990, things got worse.

In 1991-92, the state faced a $750 million shortfall. To help make up the loss, school funding was cut again.

In 1992-93, funding levels were frozen. The state stopped paying for new school buildings and major additions.

To compensate, officials closed schools, cut programs and reduced course offerings. Many got permission to shorten the school year.

In Farmington’s SAD 9, for example, officials cut school-sponsored field trips and reduced the gifted and talented program. They reorganized bus routes to make them more efficient and shuffled students so schools could be consolidated. Like many school systems then, officials considered furlough days. Layoffs were routine.

“Morale was impacted, of course,” said SAD 9 Superintendent Michael Cormier.

So many teachers lost their jobs throughout the state that the Maine Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, saw its membership drop by 1,000 teachers – from an all time high of 15,800 in 1990.

MEA President Rob Walker was a seventh-grade science teacher in Lewiston and chief negotiator for the city’s teachers union in the early 1990s. He remembers his union trying desperately to avoid massive layoffs by agreeing to furlough days, exchanging five paid teacher workshop days for unpaid days off.

“We essentially gave back $369,000 for them to maintain programs,” Walker said.

The furlough days stemmed a tide of layoffs for one bad fiscal year but couldn’t prevent them the next. Teachers with 10 years of experience found themselves fearing for their jobs. Those who stayed had to deal with aging textbooks and too few supplies.

“Lewiston really got hit hard,” Walker said.

Another round

By the mid-1990s, state and local officials were trying to repair the damage. Schools re-established sports teams and bolstered thin academic programs. They stopped years of layoffs and started hiring.

The state began paying for major school construction again and boosted state aid by more than 5 percent each year between 1999 and 2001.

But as the 2003 fiscal year was about to begin last summer, Maine faced another financial emergency.

Economists predicted the state would be short more than $240 million. To help save money, then-Gov. Angus King took $10 million from the education fund.

Months later, economists said the state would be short another $44.5 million. King took another $6 million from education.

Now, facing more than $1 billion in shortfalls for the next two years, state lawmakers have approved an increase in aid for next year.

They OK’d a $6 million decrease for the year after that.

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