Maine's Town Academies and Independent Schools

Maine is home to a number of private, independent schools, including its historic Town Academies, and while such schools exist in states across the nation, Maine is one of the very few states where children can attend these private schools at taxpayer expense.

As explained on our School Choice in Maine page, students who live in towns or school districts across Maine which do not operate their own high schools are generally allowed to choose the high school they wish to attend, including certain private schools approved by the state to receive taxpayer funding. In this way, students in many Maine towns may not only attend conventional public schools, but approved private and independent schools as well.

In fact, that students in Maine even have this choice of schools is due to the historic presence of the Town Academies. During Maine's early history, there was no such thing as public high schools as we understand that term today. Rather, high school educations were provided by the private Town Academies, dozens of which once operated across the state. In 1909, laws were adopted by the legislature which required each Maine town to either build and maintain its own high school or provide tuition for students to attend one of the private academies. Facing the high cost of building new schools and hiring new teachers, many Maine towns simply chose to "tuition" their students to one of the private academies, which is why that process, still in practice in towns across Maine today, is known as "town tuitioning." Over time, many of the academies closed or converted to conventional public schools, though a handful of them remain today.

As the Town Academies point out on their own website, they represent a great value both to the students they serve and to Maine taxpayers. Test score data shows that the Academies are routinely among the top scoring schools in the state and have a higher average graduation rate than Maine’s public high schools. For taxpayers, they are a bargain. Tuition costs for the Academies are well below the per-pupil state average and the Academies provide educational and extracurricular facilities for use by the public without taxpayers needing to borrow heavily to cover construction and renovation costs.

The Academies, though, are under near constant assault from the public school establishment, including the state Department of Education, which regularly seeks to either heavily regulate the Academies or drive them out of business by cutting public tuition rates. If there is one thing the public school establishment can’t stand, it is competition.

Families seeking a high quality education owe it to themselves to investigate Maine’s private schools and Town Academies, information about which may be found on the website of the Independent Schools Association of Northern New England. For supporters of school choice, the battle the Academies are constantly fighting against the education establishment in Augusta is a fight worth supporting.

Interested in preserving school choice options like the Town Academies? Be sure to visit our Get Involved page.

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