Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor, columnist and reporter for 40 years. He welcomes comment at [email protected].

Rep. Michael Brennan, D-Portland, is to be commended for sponsoring and promoting a bill to overhaul the state’s moribund school construction program, which, if truth be told, has been shortchanging our kids and communities for decades.

Brennan’s proposal, LD 1892, is now before the Education Committee, and will eventually proceed to floor votes. Expectations should be kept in check. This is the eighth year of an administration not known for new ideas or encouraging others to produce them, and it’s doubtful any new proposal calling for additional spending — even for vital needs — will get much consideration.

But as a forum to explore concepts that might work, and that can furnish ideas for the ongoing gubernatorial campaign, it has real promise.

Brennan, who’s served 11 terms as a legislator and was Portland’s first elected mayor after the 2010 charter change, certainly understands the problem; his own city is a prime example. Portland High School’s main structure is over a century old, yet replacing the school has never risen to the top of any state list.

How can it be that the state’s economic hub and its largest driver of tax revenue cannot get funding for a new high school, even as 21st century buildings, some of them state-of-the-art, for  universities, colleges and private institutions are going up all around town?

It’s not just Portland, of course. Throughout Maine, and especially in rural areas, most schools were built 60 or more years ago, back when Maine had a well-funded and, compared with current expectations, visionary construction program that’s been allowed to run downhill almost ever since.

The last significant funding boost came during the King administration, with 35 major projects approved over five years. By contrast, the most recent completed cycle from 2018-23 produced only nine. Even after approval, it takes an unconscionable seven years to build a school, another result of the state’s lagging commitment.

The main culprit is the way the construction program is carved out of General Purpose Aid, the 55% of approved costs the state pays each year. A $150 million debt ceiling has been in place for two decades, meaning previous bonds must be paid off for any new borrowing to occur.

Brennan proposes increasing the ceiling to $200 million, which would help but wouldn’t solve the fundamental problem, which is the lack of balance between operating costs and infrastructure needs. Basically, the state is supporting an inefficient and poorly functioning system while failing to invest in schools that could improve educational outcomes and reduce costs over time.

Instead of a debt ceiling, the state needs a separate capital budget that would provide a more appropriate balance. Brennan proposes a Public School Finance Authority to meet this need, but we don’t require another bonding and guaranty agency.

Rather, the Maine Government Facilities Authority, established in 1997, could be adapted to do the job. Innovative bonding techniques financed a major expansion of state prisons around the turn of this century, and the Facilities Authority has an impressive recent record in building new courthouses around the state.

Measured by that standard, the state’s performance on school construction looks even worse. Courthouses and prisons are important, but surely we value the education of our young people even more. When they’ve been asked, Mainers have been generous with public education; it’s the major reason why we have the sales and income taxes today.

Brennan identifies another flaw in the current system, which awards nearly 100% state funding for every approved project, meaning the program functions as an all-or-nothing lottery, with only a few winners and many, many unfunded projects.

This wrinkle was actually introduced in the 1990s when the Essential Programs and Services model for GPA funding was adopted. Before that, there was usually a local share, based on an objective measurement of municipalities’ ability to pay. It should be reinstituted.

The weakest part of the bill is its proposed funding — according to Brennan, “gaming, cannabis and tobacco revenue, as well as lapsed balances.” This is the sort of nickel-and-diming the Legislature has been reduced to, and is no way to finance an important long-term program.

If lawmakers are looking for available sources, they might start by retrieving the $300 million now being diverted from the General and Liquor funds to prop up the Highway Fund that constitutionally is supposed to be self-supporting.

Realistically, this is going to require a strong commitment from a new governor and bipartisan support from the Legislature. It’s time to start thinking bigger and stop plugging leaks. Next week, I’ll take a look at how that can happen.