Trostel’s Studies Cited in BDN Editorial

The Bangor Daily News editorial “Maine GOP ‘welfare reform’ is for campaign trail, not major impact” cites two studies by Philip Trostel, a University of Maine economist. A 2010 paper by Trostel found Maine’s per-inmate spending in 2007 was the second highest in the nation at $64,155. His study earlier this year on taxpayer investment in early childhood education found numerous fiscal benefits result from providing low-income children from birth to age 4 with year-round, full-time high-quality services. Because more parents could then work and pay taxes, fewer interventions would be needed in the K-12 years, thus cutting taxpayer funding by $25,700 per child.