[Local-Maine-Schools] Ralph has hit the statistical fraud nail on the head.

[Dick Atlee]

Ralph, that is a FINE letter, so good I'd like it in the archives of 
this list in easy-to-access form as part of message text.  The way 
things have been going, this letter may end up being of more "I told you 
so" use if the Legislature makes the Big Mistake that so many of the 
educationally untutored members are intent on, but you've hit the nail 
on the head on the statistical frauds that have been used to drive this 
bus toward, and perhaps over, the cliff.

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Ralph Chapman rchapman.utc at gmail.com
455 Varnumville Road
Brooksville ME 04617
207-326-0899
June 5, 2007

Dear Editor,

Non-solutions for Non-problems

Earlier this week, the Maine legislature and the public got their first 
look at the Appropriation Committee’s budget bill, including a section 
which proposes to drastically change Maine’s public education system. 
The legislature hopes to pass (by a 2/3 majority) a budget in the next 
few weeks.

The school consolidation portion needs to be completely removed from the 
budget bill immediately for these reasons:

1. Harmful to Democracy - the legislation eliminates 1800 publicly 
elected local school board members regardless of the length of their 
elected term; the process has not yet allowed any public hearing on the 
legislation; control and ownership of a community’s assets (school 
facilities) is transferred out of town; any form of local control of 
education is eliminated.

2. Unnecessary - the reasons given by the Maine Department of Education 
for the consolidation are false and fraudulent: administrative costs in 
Maine’s educational system are a smaller percentage (9.2%) than the 
national average (11.0%, FY2004); the current decline in student 
enrollment is expected to last only five more years before the next 
upswing; the current rate of decline is only two percent per year (much 
less than the decline in the late 1970s).

3. Harmful to Educational Quality - Maine’s current educational system 
ranks fifth in the nation (2006) behind only four other northeast states 
that spend more dollars per student than Maine. The proposed legislation 
mentions educational quality only once, as a goal for improvement in 
connection with the provision requiring the Commissioner of Education to 
prepare maps of suggested alignments of municipalities into new regions. 
The further requirements of that provision cut spending for special 
education, transportation, facilities, and maintenance.

4. Illusory Benefits - the supposed financial benefit to taxpayers of 
$36 million is a complete fabrication. It is the same number of dollars 
that were to be saved by the Governor’s original proposal that achieved 
some savings from cutting four percent of the teaching positions ($26 
million savings) and eighty percent of the superintendents (about $10 
million if no new assistants were hired). Now that the plan does not cut 
teaching positions and cuts fewer than half of the superintendents, the 
projected savings are overstated by at least $31 million.

5. Unrealistic Expectations - the need for special education services is 
increasing, in part due to the explosion in the incidence of autism; 
transportation will require increases due to the rapidly escalating 
costs for fuel; facilities and maintenance will require increases due to 
rising heating fuel costs; and yet these are the very areas for which 
the proposed legislation mandates less spending.

My loss of trust for our Department of Education follows from: a) the 
recent experience of the Essential Programs and Services funding model 
which has worsened rather than bettered equity in Maine schools in spite 
of stated goals to the contrary, b) the illogic displayed in portraying 
administrative costs as the reason for Maine’s high per-student 
educational expense, c) the fraud displayed by claiming a precipitous 
drop in enrollment forcing the need for immediate change, and d) the 
fraud displayed by claiming that Maine’s school administrative costs are 
high.

I sincerely hope that the energies of the multitude of dedicated public 
servants working to provide Maine kids with the best education per 
dollar in the country will not be lessened by having to deal with the 
abuse of power displayed by our leaders in the Governor’s Office, the 
Maine Department of Education Commissioner’s Office, and a handful of 
legislators whose actions suggest they have yet to look at the facts.

Let us express our pride in Maine’s public educational system and 
Maine’s democratic processes by encouraging our legislators to remove 
the ill-planned school consolidation section from the proposed budget.

-- Ralph Chapman

Brooksville