121st Maine Legislature
		Office of Fiscal and Program Review
		LD 182
		An Act to Eliminate Discrimination Against Parents Who Want to Send Their Children to Religious Private Schools
		LR1043(01)
		Fiscal Note for Original Bill
		Sponsor: Rep. Glynn
		Committee:  Education and Cultural Affairs
		Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Fiscal Note
Undetermined current biennium cost increase - General Fund
State Mandate		Unit Affected	Costs	Description
		School	Significant	The requirement that a school administrative unit pay tuition to a religious private school without 90% state funding is a state mandate.
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	This bill would result in increase costs to the State.  Currently, if a parent chooses to send their child to a private religious school and pays the tuition that child is not counted for subsidy purposes.  If this bill is enacted, the school administrative unit would be able to count that previously uncounted child for subsidy purposes, resulting in an increased cost to the State.  The total cost to the Department of Education can not be determined at this time.  However, based on 2001-02 data, the department estimates the additional cost to the State could be approximately $350,000 per year.
	This bill also impacts costs to local school units.  For the local school unit in which a student resides, the costs will be higher if it is required to pay the tuition for a student already attending a religious private school. For that same local school unit, the net cost for a student who chooses to leave a public or nonsectarian private school for a sectarian school because of this bill may be higher or lower depending on the tuition level of the sectarian school versus the public or nonsectarian private school that the student had been attending.  Finally, there would be a fiscal impact to local school units who lose students to sectarian schools.  The net fiscal impact to local school units can not be determined at this time.