Gov. John Baldacci has dominated the news with his bold proposal to cut the number of school districts, school committees and superintendents in the state to 26, but political reality is settling in as less drastic consolidation plans start to compete for the public’s attention.
At least two major educational reform bills backed by two statewide studies have been introduced and will be considered by the Legislature’s Education Committee along with the governor’s plan.
One calls for using the 26 districts referenced in Baldacci’s proposal – currently the state’s vocational/technical school regions – as planning districts, where locals can come together and propose what school administrative functions should be consolidated.
The other calls for collapsing the current 290 districts, with their 290 school committees and 152 superintendents, into just under 65 districts, with 3,000 to 4,000 students each. Current districts about that size would be left alone.
While legislative debate is supposed to make better public policy, there is one very real practical problem with pulling the governor’s proposal apart and rebuilding it with more local control. Baldacci already has counted savings from his school district consolidation plan to balance the next state budget.
More than $36 million in administrative savings has been booked out of a projected long-term savings of $240 million. The governor also is counting on $25 million from a separate proposal that calls for increasing class size to 17 in middle schools and high schools. That would allow the state to cut between 600 and 650 teaching posts.
“The budget is predicated on the savings realized by the governor’s proposal. That’s a lot of money,” said Senate Majority Leader Libby Mitchell, D-Kennebec County, especially when the budget also relies on passage of a $1-a-pack hike in the cigarette tax. That hike would give Maine the highest cigarette tax in the country and bring in $131 million in new tax revenue.
“The Education Committee will be challenged by the fact that with any savings they forgo, they’ll have to find other ways to balance the budget,” said Mitchell, who is on the Education Committee this session and chaired it in her last two-year term.
“I honestly think the debate is just beginning. There is truly concern about the speed,” in which the governor’s plan consolidates districts, Mitchell added. It is not, she said, coming from the superintendents as much as it is from those who don’t want to lose their local school boards.
“People are saying ‘wait a minute. We’re not going to have a voice,'” Mitchell said.
Alternate plans
Mitchell is sponsoring a plan proposed last year by the Maine Children’s Alliance in a comprehensive study that called for using the 26 vocational school districts as planning coalitions. The alliance report envisioned restoring up to $20 million in regional planning money to help existing districts find ways to share administrative functions and school calendars, and eventually consolidate to a yet- to-be determined number. That regional planning money was used in the last state budget to quiet school districts upset over losing state aid when the state switched to a new education funding formula.
“It’s a slower version than the governor’s in that it creates these planning councils,” Mitchell said, though, “It doesn’t envision an infinite amount of time.”
“Somewhere in between all of these proposals there should be something that we can move forward with,” she said.
Another proposal that received a lot of attention last year came from a special committee put together by the state Board of Education. Its authors included former Gov. Angus King, David Flanagan, the retired CEO of Central Maine Power, current Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron and Board of Education Chairman Jim Carignan.
The draft report was criticized as too extreme when it proposed consolidating the current 290 school districts down to 35 – based on the geographic lines of Senate districts – and was revamped to call for around 65 districts of between 3,000 to 4,000 students each.
In contrast, the governor’s plan calls for 26 districts ranging in size from 1,824 in Calais and 2,546 in Madawaska to 17,728 in Sanford and 19,996 in Portland – disparity that opponents argue points out the flaw in simply adopting the vocational school districts as the model.
Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Androscoggin, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, is sponsoring the state board’s modified proposal. While reluctant to criticize the governor’s plan, Rotundo was happy to say what she liked about the state board’s process.
“They sought input. Initially they had come out with a smaller number, but they listened to people and realized that wasn’t an optimal number,” Rotundo said. “One thing I like about what I’m bringing forward is there has been an opportunity for input and a lot of study. This would be a huge change. We want to make sure we get it right.”
Under the proposal, the Legislature would create a bipartisan panel that would propose the new districts and its recommendation would be subject to an up or down vote of the Legislature – no amendments allowed.
“It would be similar to the base closing commission and for the same reason,” Rotundo said. “It’s very difficult to vote for something that’s the right thing to do, but is difficult politically.”
As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, which ultimately has to craft a state budget the Legislature can support, Rotundo is aware of the financial ramifications of changing the governor’s redistricting plan.
“There’s a huge policy decision right in the middle of the budget,” she said, and the Appropriations Committee will have to work with the Education Committee to keep tabs on the changing numbers and find ways to fill the holes.
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