The House approved a compromise on the controversial school consolidation plan in a 114-27 vote early Wednesday morning after leadership offered an amendment that softens penalties for those that don’t join together and gives more flexibility in terms of the number of districts that would be created.
That compromise was offered when it became clear there was not the needed two-thirds vote in the House to get the school consolidation plan or the budget bill in which it was imbedded passed.
Gov. John Baldacci had inserted school consolidation into the state’s two-year $6.3 billion budget, raising the stakes on the vote. While the governor had initially called for collapsing Maine’s 290 school districts into 26, the Legislature’s Appropriation’s Committee unanimously supported a proposal creating up to 80 districts of between 1,200 to 2,500 students each.
In the compromise offered on the House floor Tuesday night, Appropriation’s Committee Chairman Rep. Jeremy Fischer, D-Presque Isle, said concerns raised by the rural caucus – a bipartisan group of legislators from the less populated areas of the state – deserved attention.
The compromise essentially cuts in half the penalties initially proposed by the Appropriations Committee. And, while it still calls for districts of between 1,200 to 2,500 students each, it moves away from the legislative intent to create 80 districts and instead calls for districts that could achieve “sustainable long-term efficiencies.”
It also gives districts until June 2008 to vote on consolidation instead of January 2008; exempts districts that try but can’t find a consolidation partner; and, creates an exemption for high-performing districts that are below the state average in terms of costs in addition to the exemption already agreed to for island and tribal schools.
Rep. David Farrington, D-Gorham, a teacher and member of the Education Committee, was key in getting the compromise through the House. Farrington was opposed from the start to dramatic consolidation plans and joined with the rural caucus to launch an offensive against them.
“As many of you are aware, I was one of a number of people with serious reservations about the initial proposals for school consolidation,” Farrington said on the House floor Tuesday night. “We have come a very long way from where we started and the most significant issues and concerns that I have had and many of you have had have been addressed.”
“We had concerns about the timeline. This amendment adjusts the timeline,” Farrington said. “Many of us had concerns about penalties. This amendment addressed that. It still includes significant penalties, but it does not make those penalties crippling on a district.”
Under the Appropriations Committee plan, property-rich towns that currently get only minimal subsidy from the state would have received nothing if they refused to consolidate. Other districts would have had their state aid for administration eliminated. The compromise cuts those penalties in half.
While 20 amendments, in addition to the compromise offered by leadership, had been initially proposed, only five were actually presented on the House floor Tuesday night.
Two of those dealt with schools and three with the budget itself.
They included proposals by: Rep. Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou, to focus on administrative collaboration not school consolidation; Rep. Henry Joy, R-Crystal, to count teacher retirement contributions when figuring the state’s share of aid to local schools; Rep. Robert Walker, R-Lincolnville, to make pharmacy co-payments mandatory not voluntary for Medicaid recipients; Rep. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, to protect the Highway Fund; and, Rep. Peter Rines, D-Wiscasset, to restore a portion of the $3.9 million taken from the E-911 account to help balance the budget.
Even with the limited amendments offered, the House did not vote on the compromise school plan until shortly after 1 a.m.
The proposal will now move to the Senate, which was scheduled to review it sometime on Wednesday.
No matter what school consolidation plan is ultimately passed, all school districts – regardless of their willingness to consolidate – will share a $36.5 million cut in state aid, starting in July 2008. That cut, which is the amount Baldacci booked for his original consolidation plan, will be distributed across system administration, transportation, special education and facilities and maintenance under the formula used to distribute state aid. Another $17 million in school aid also is being cut this coming fiscal year to help balance the budget.
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