BREWER – The Essential Programs and Services school-funding formula may look fine as business theory, but making it work statewide could be a challenge.

That was the conclusion of Daniel Innes, dean of the University of Maine College of Business, after conducting a review of the EPS funding model. Innes outlined his findings Monday night during a meeting of the Penobscot River Educational Partnership: A Professional Development Network.

“As a business guy, I think that the priority of EPS is good, but the implementation is going to be a bit rocky at times,” said Innes.

The Penobscot River Educational Partnership is a 5-year-old collaborative effort of local schools and the University of Maine to help member organizations and individuals improve teaching and learning. Its membership is made up of schools and technology centers in Greater Bangor.

Area selectmen and municipal officials also attended Monday’s meeting. Many of them have expressed concerns about the implications of the EPS formula.

Innes advised the gathering that because the goals of the funding formula are based on a proven business model, EPS likely will fare well over time.

He added, however, that because the entire funding program is being phased in over four years, some schools will undoubtedly be faced with the difficult choice of raising local taxes to keep pace with its objectives.

Before the creation of EPS, the state based its financial support for education on a school department’s budget from the year before. Innes said while that method may have worked in Maine “since the beginning,” it also resulted in ever-expanding school costs.

Although EPS was not designed to control costs, last year’s voter mandate that the state provide 55 percent of education expenditures changed all that.

“Cost containment is an important element of this thing,” said Innes.

Innes compared EPS to “zero-based budgeting,” where state spending is based on a specific formula that determines what is needed to provide an adequate and equitable education. What a school department spent in the past no longer matters, he said.

“From a business perspective, that makes a lot of sense,” he told the group.

By shifting to EPS, Innes said, the Department of Education has attempted to rein in costs while at the same time requiring that all schools conform to a specific strategy for educating their pupils. The EPS blueprint was based on the scholastic and operational performance of a group of Maine schools that were able to show high student achievement levels at low per-pupil cost, said Innes.

Using those figures, the Department of Education developed a set of common standards based largely on enrollment, although certain student demographics and each community’s tax base are also part of the formula.

EPS was designed to ensure that every student is exposed to the required curriculum to meet Maine Learning Results and provide them with the opportunity to succeed academically regardless of what school system they attend or where it is located. For that reason, some communities may see their local share of school funding diminish somewhat, even as the total cost of education continues to increase.

Innes also noted that EPS appears to have created an unforeseen scenario where large schools with large enrollments and low per-pupil costs will reap benefits greater than communities with small schools, declining enrollments and high per-pupil costs.

“There is a gap that’s developing between EPS and reality,” he said. “I think that implication will be significant.”

Innes cautioned that the situation could lead to disparities because local taxpayers in some communities might be unwilling to make up the difference between what the state is willing to pay for the curriculum it mandates and what the towns can afford. When schools cut or reduce programs, he said, the entire community could lose out.

“It makes me nervous because if you’ve got a school that’s losing students and cutting budgets, people may not move there,” he said. “People want to move to a community that’s performing well.”