BAR HARBOR — The latest reduction in state aid to public schools, announced by the Department of Education on Monday, will not require the schools in the Mount Desert Island Regional School System (MDI RSS) to cinch their belts any tighter or ask their towns for more tax money. That’s because MDI RSS officials had anticipated the amount of the state funding cut and advised schools to prepare their budgets for next fiscal year accordingly.

Superintendent Rob Liebow said Tuesday that budgets the high school board and elementary school committees have adopted would not need to be changed to accommodate the reduction in state funds.

State aid to public schools is being cut by a total of $92 million to help balance the state budget. Unlike many schools in Maine, all of the MDI RSS schools except Frenchboro receive state funds only for special education.

The state is supposed to pay 100 percent of the cost of special education, but has never done so. The closest it has ever come, according to Mr. Liebow, was 84 percent, and the percentage has dropped over the last few years.

For more education news, pick up a copy of the Mount Desert Islander.

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