[Local-Maine-Schools] meeting with Gendron

[Ralph Chapman]

Earl,

Thanks for asking for input on possible questions for the Commissioner
of Education.  There are three categories of questions that I have:
1) How will the proposed legislation save money?
2) How will the proposed legislation improve education? and
3) How does the legislation, and the process of its development and
enactment, help democracy?

In the first category, I imagine that the cost savings are expected to
come from the elimination of half of the superintendent positions.  If
so, then I have two further questions:
1a) What tasks now performed by superintendents will be eliminated? and
1b) How can this legislation cancel contracts that some
superintendents have with municipalities? (And if those contracts
cannot be canceled, where are the savings?)

In the second category, I imagine that there is no benefit, and
probably harm that derives from the proposed legislation to the
quality of education.  The most significant element of both cost and
quality is the student / teacher ratio.  So my questions on this
matter are:
2a) What motivation will the new regional school boards have to
maintain the low student / teacher ratio that underpins the high
quality of Maine's pre-K to 12 education?
2b) How will services to students with special needs be administered
effectively by the reduced numbers of special education directors? or,
alternatively, what is the rationale for reducing the number of
eligible students and provided services?

In the third category, I suspect that few people seriously ponder the
purpose of education or the needs of an educated citizenry as
essential for democracy.  My question in this category is:
3a) How does the proposed legislation help improve the workings of our
democratic system of government?

If you are looking for more specific questions, I offer these:
4a) How will the Career and Technical Education (CTE) regional schools
be administered under the proposed legislation and who will decide
which students will attend their programs?  (The present Cooperative
Boards are eliminated and there will necessarily be several new
regional Boards with jurisdictional overlap with each of the 26 CTE
regions.)
4b) What motivation will the new regional Boards have to allow
students to attend an independent school in their region since it
necessarily competes with the public school in their region?

I guess asking questions is a lot easier than answering them...
Thanks for your efforts at exploring the issues.

--Ralph Chapman
rchapman.utc at gmail.com



On 4/11/07, Earl Brechlin <ebrechlin at mdislander.com> wrote:
> Susan Gendron will be speaking at a luncheon with members of the Maine Press
> Association on Friday. I've got some good questions for her but I'd be
> interested in seeing what other folks would like ask if they had a chance.
> Please email any offerings to me.
>
> Best
>
> Earl
>
> P.S. A story on the latest consolidation proposal, as well as an editorial
> referring to the entire redistricting idea as "a runaway train" and calling
> for all of it be withdrawn and urging people to write or contact their
> elected representatives (and supplying the addresses), will be running in
> this afternoon's Islander and Ellsworth American.
>
>
> Earl Brechlin
> Editor, Mount Desert Islander
> Maine and New England's Newspaper of the Year
> P.O. Box 900
> 310 Main Street
> Bar Harbor, Maine 04609
> 207-288-0556