Maine Gov. Janet Mills frequently likes to cite the state, rather than local municipalities, funding 55% of all education costs as one of her major accomplishments as governor. While the funding mandate has been pursued unsuccessfully by prior governors for decades, hitting it isn’t quite the milestone that Mills (and other Maine politicians) imagine.

It’s always been a bit of a nebulous goal because the definition education funding can be a moving target. Does it include employee benefits and salary, for instance, or administrative costs? If so, the state could have reached the 55% threshold by reducing health care costs and administrative overhead, rather than by increasing funding.

Regardless of how one defines education spending, hitting a certain percentage of state costs is not a particularly impressive accomplishment — or, at least, it should not have been.

Politicians rarely have any problem spending money, after all. All we needed to hit that magic number was a motivated governor with a compliant legislature and good fiscal circumstances. Mills has been blessed with both, with the Democrats in full control in Augusta throughout her tenure and the state never facing a deficit, even during the pandemic. Neither of her immediate predecessors had such good fortune.

The problem is that, when it comes to education in Maine, spending is not the problem. Last year, we spent $19,310 per student annually, putting us just outside the top 15 states in spending. While we could certainly spend more on education — the top spender, New York state, spends more than $30,000 per pupil annually — the question isn’t the spending. Instead, it’s whether we’re getting good results out of that spending — and, lately, the data show that we’re not.

In 2025, Maine fourth graders’ math and reading skills were ranked among the lowest in the country, according to the Nation’s Report Card, a congressionally mandated report.

This drop isn’t new, and it’s not entirely Mills’ fault, of course — but it also can’t entirely be blamed on pandemic-related issues. The steady drop in scores dates back to 2013. The point is not that it’s entirely Mills’ fault that scores are dropping, but that the increased funding for education from the state hasn’t done anything to arrest the slide.

Meanwhile, in Mississippi, which spends far less per student, their scores have been generally increasing in both categories at the fourth-grade level since 2013 — if not always steadily. They’re now ahead of us in both fourth-grade math and reading, and overall, although not in science.

So, how did they do it? Not by dramatically increasing funding — they still only spend about $12,300 per student, far less than Maine. Instead, they pursued reform aggressively, by focusing heavily on early literacy with clear statewide standards. That enabled them to aggressively improve their standing, to the point that they no longer are lagging behind Maine (and many other states) in key educational metrics but are now ahead — and still improving. Maine, meanwhile, is staying largely static.

There’s not the space here to delve into the details of Mississippi’s program, but rest assured I’m not arguing that Maine should simply copy that approach. Rather, the point in bringing up Mississippi as an example is to show that innovative policy solutions can bring positive results. While it worked well in Mississippi, their approach may or may not work well in Maine: we’re quite different demographically, structurally, economically and geographically. We shouldn’t be just copying entire policies from other states.

However, we shouldn’t be resting on our laurels and simply hoping that that throwing more money at the problem will prove effective. Shoveling more money into a failing system won’t necessarily improve the outcome; it’s simply not an effective use of taxpayer dollars. Instead, we should be taking a look at the approaches being taken by all states and select the elements that might actually help here in Maine. Neighboring New Hampshire, for instance, spends slightly more per student, but consistently achieves better results.

It’s all well and good to have hit the funding level decreed by law, but that’s only part of the solution. Crafting a better education system that actually works is going to take more than a bigger budget. We’re going to need to craft solutions that actually help our kids succeed. Otherwise, we’re failing taxpayers and students simultaneously.

Editor’s note (March 26): A previous version of this column relied on an older edition of the Nation’s Report Card. The reference has been updated.