[Local-Maine-Schools] Well, let's hear it for a Republican truth-teller

[Dick Atlee]

Dick Dimond pointed out this Maine Republican Party website release to 
me last night.  Rep. Rep. Edgecomb is pleading for an end to the 
fast-track rush to insanity.  He also notes in the penultimate paragraph 
the same backing off by the DOE that Gail mentions.

Dick Atlee

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information:

February 26, 2007 Jay Finegan, 287-1445
Rep. Edgecomb Says School Consolidation Plan Is
   ‘Inexplicably’ Being Rushed Through Legislature
   Education Committee on ‘Breakneck Pace’ to Develop a Bill
http://mainegop.com/news/read.aspx?id=3747

AUGUSTA – State Rep. Peter Edgecomb said today that the plan to 
consolidate school administration has inexplicably been put on a fast 
track in the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs, forcing 
committee members to rush to develop a bill that will represent arguably 
the most massive change for Maine schools in history.

“We have been given a last-ditch deadline of March 14th to produce a 
committee bill for the full House and Senate,” said Rep. Edgecomb, the 
ranking Republican on the committee and a former school superintendent. 
“Given the enormity and complexity of the job, I can’t understand why we 
aren’t getting the time required to do this right. It will take years to 
correct the mistakes if this is not handled with the utmost care and 
consideration.”

Rep. Edgecomb said that even with this tight deadline to deliver a 
finished product, the Education Committee did not even meet last week, 
during school vacation week. “The Legislature was not in session, but 
other committees did convene last week,” he said. “Now we’re in a race 
against time when we should be putting all the competing consolidation 
plans under a microscope.”

To make up for lost time, he said, the committee has approval from 
legislative leaders to meet over the March 3-4 weekend and during 
evening hours until March 8th, when it is scheduled for a “report back” 
to the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. It also has 
funding approval to meet over the March 9-11 weekend.

“This schedule puts us on a breakneck pace to write a bill of immense 
importance to all of Maine’s school children and the entire education 
establishment,” said Rep. Edgecomb. “If we are supposed to have a 
two-thirds budget this year, we’d have until the end of June to vote on 
the budget. So why exactly are we being forced to come up with a 
completed bill so soon? Writing this bill should be a marathon process, 
but instead we’ll be running the 100-meter dash.”

The Education Committee has to wade through six or seven consolidation 
plans and craft a final bill for the full Legislature. The bill must 
produce savings of at least $40.1 million to keep the budget in balance 
and provide the $16.4 million in the governor’s budget to expand the 
laptop program to Maine high schools and put a principal in every 
school. The expected savings of $25 million over the next two years by 
increasing class sizes to 17 students per teacher is no longer part of 
the consolidation calculus. The Department of Education has “backed off” 
that figure and is unsure what the final savings will be.

Rep. Edgecomb said the Education Committee was assigned a total of 127 
bills, but only two have so far been reported out. “We’ve got a long, 
long way to go,” he said.

Rep. Edgecomb can be reached at 227-4227.