An Act To Permit Tuition Subsidies by Municipalities

Sec. 1. 30-A MRSA §2110  is enacted to read:

§ 2110.  Subsidies by municipalities

A municipality may, if it passes a resolution to do so, provide subsidies from its general fund to parents of students who attend private schools precluded from receiving public funds under Title 20-A, section 2951 to reimburse those parents for part or all of tuition.

summary

This bill allows municipalities to give subsidies from their general funds to parents to reimburse them for part or all of the tuition the parents paid to private schools that are precluded from receiving tuition funding from the State.

In Joyce v. State of Maine, 951 A.2d 69 (Me. 2008), the Law Court essentially acknowledged that it would be constitutionally permissible for municipalities to adopt such subsidy programs, but held that current Maine law, the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 2951, prohibits municipalities from doing so.