In October 2024, Gov. Janet Mills declared Maine’s school construction funding model inequitable and announced the need to create a better system for financing public school facility needs. By executive order, she created a commission to study the problem and recommend solutions.

That group put out a report earlier this year outlining the scope of the crisis and offering proposals to cut costs, maximize existing resources and increase funding, but it came to lawmakers later than expected.

Members of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee had just a couple days to incorporate some aspects of that report into a carryover bill from last session. It passed out of committee 8-5 along party lines last month and is now before the House and Senate.

Although most lawmakers might agree that changes are needed, the bill’s $100 million price tag could give them pause, even though that amount would be spread over several years and would come from existing revenue sources, including general fund surplus.

“I’m optimistic that people are going to look at the need and see this bill as a vehicle,” said Rep. Michael Brennan, D-Portland, who sponsored the original bill and worked on the amendment.

Mills’ commission uncovered a dire situation for the state’s school construction system: 500 of Maine’s 600 school buildings will need to be replaced in the next two decades, an effort that would cost $11 billion.

Under the state’s current system for funding new school construction, districts submit their proposals to the state, where they are ranked based on need and placed on a long list. During the last cycle in 2017-18, of the 74 schools applied just nine projects were funded. Last year, there were 95 applicants.

The commission, which was tasked with completing a report by April 2025, instead released an interim report at that point and announced it would continue its work through the end of the year. The full report came out in February, and the education committee heard a presentation about it on March 10, three days before the deadline for committees to vote out their bills.

The suggestions included rethinking how the state uses its revolving renovation fund — a program that provides no-interest loans to districts for small projects — and using a sliding scale model to fund major capital projects. It proposed starting by creating a working group that would explore developing a quasi-independent Intergovernmental Office of School Infrastructure that would handle the implementation of recommendations.

On March 11, with the deadline rapidly approaching, Brennan offered to amend a bill he introduced during the last session, LD 1892. He took out many of his original proposals and added some from the commission report.

“I thought it was important to find some way forward,” Brennan told the committee, noting that they were unlikely to have time to respond to all of the group’s recommendations through new legislation.

Brennan’s amended bill creates several new options for schools that need to fund school construction projects: it would add $50 million in general fund surplus to the revolving renovation fund (and raise the maximum loan cap for those projects from $2 million to $8 million), substantially raise the limit on debt service for projects. It would also create a new program, called the Accelerator Fund, for immediate heat, air conditioning or roof repair needs.

Brennan knows the bill’s cost is a tough pill to swallow, but compared to the billions of dollars in need the state is projecting, he believes it’s a small but significant step forward.

If passed, the bill would establish the working group recommended by the commission to continue looking for solutions. It would include at least seven members, including the commissioner of education or a designee, the chair of the state board of education, one superintendent and one member of the governor’s commission.

The group’s goal would be to submit its own report by Jan. 15, 2027, to a joint session of the education and finance committees, at which point those committees would have the option to report out a bill.

Ben Goodman, a spokesperson for Mills, said her team worked with lawmakers to figure out the best course to address the commission’s findings, which included adding the working group to LD 1892.

“Governor Mills believes that every student in Maine should be able to learn in a safe and modern public school, and her administration is committed to continuing to move this important work forward,” he said in an emailed statement.

The amended bill also directs the Department of Education to adopt a cost-sharing model with districts for major capital projects, rather than the current all-or-nothing approach. Brennan said Maine is one of only five states that uses that model.

“The idea behind this is to get away from a lottery approach to school construction and try to spread the money around in a way that benefits more communities,” he told the committee.

Brennan described the proposed legislation as the most significant change to school construction in Maine in 25 years. He said it would be a major step forward for the state, as districts grapple with tough conversations about the types of school projects they want to build today, potential consolidation and how to best use facilities in an era of declining enrollment.