Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Now they're getting somewhere.
The Legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee's failure to recommend a credible school administration reform plan was beyond irresponsible.
Fortunately for taxpayers and students alike, members of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee appear to be made of stiffer stuff.
That's a good thing: Gov. Baldacci has already penciled the $250 million in savings from his reform bill into the budget. If lawmakers can't obtain that kind of savings from school reform, they'll have to find it someplace else.
Last week, appropriators agreed that Maine's school districts should be directed to consolidate until the combined student enrollment reached at least 2,500 by 2008.
The committee wisely sought to provide some flexibility in the mandate: The boundaries of a school district of 2,500 students in Aroostook County might be too geographically far-flung to be feasible.
However, once lawmakers figure out how to make consolidation work for rural areas, they ought to mandate that every school district in the state comply with the new standards.
Appropriators are angling toward recommending a Dec. 31 deadline for the Department of Education to help school districts craft consolidation plans.
Any school administrative units that don't take action by the end of the year, lawmakers are suggesting, would simply be assigned to a school district by the state Board of Education. Any community that objects should be declared inviolation of the law and risk having its state school aid eliminated.
One of the component discussions in the reform debate involves the size of the new regional school boards. Baldacci's plan called for a maximum of 15 members each, a number some feel is too small, given that certain districts are likely to comprise more than 15 communities.
While there may be no magic number for the proper school board size, designating one voting member per community is the wrong formula.
School boards should be based on population, with each member representing a specified number of people.
The Appropriations Committee's sensible approach has been greeted with pushback: The Education Committee and lobbyists are yapping about the dangers of "top-down" reform.
Maine has tried the carrot for years without appreciable results.
It's time for the stick.
Reader comments
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Cooperation between school districts is a much fairer and process willing to be embraced by the school districts involved than forced top down consolidation.
The Planning Alliances or Cooperatives as defined by the Education Committee set goals for savings and also gave school systems a way to work together. The Education Committee's plan was a balanced one with incentives for consoldiation and it kept local control and local decision making in schools.
Some of the new terms by the Education Committee of the Legislature including calling "consolidation" a new term that is polilitically correct "realignment" and having towns vote on "realignment" in the November election. The other aspect is that the vote is "advisory" and is meaningless because schools systems would be forced to consolidate anyway.
The consolidated school systems would have to have plans submitted to the Department of Education by November 1st or December 1st. All current school boards would have to define items such as schools, new system governace, tranferrinng assets, staff contracts and other issues relating to new megadistrict by November 1st.
The whole process would be "facilitated" by DOE personnel or hired consultants. Education in Maine for K-12 schools would be a for the coming year. Current School Board members and districts will be working the equivalent of a full time job to make this happen. Spending for next year definitely will go down because current districts will not make major investments to give to a larger distrcit for free!
School Unions would be abolished and all districts would become Supersized School Administrative Districts. Keep decisons local. report abuse
Taxpayers want good education at a reasonable, and affordable price.
Cost savings can be achieved by streamlining operations by eliminating duplicate, or unnecessary programs or job positions that more often than not, add no value in the classroom.
And while we're on the subject, why not give taxpayers a voucher that would allow them buy education from a different source?
Forcing public education in Maine(and the U.S.)to compete would improve the product while reducing its cost.
The time has come to strip public education of its taxpayer funded monopoly.report abuse
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