[Local-Maine-Schools] Mandatory consolidation

[Brian Hubbell]

I'm pretty sure that Keith Edwards is mis-reporting at least the
intentions of the Appropriations subcommittee on education in his
article today in the PPH, KJ, and Sentinel:
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/statehouse/070324schools.html

In it he says (and the Sentinel's headline writer amplifies) that
consolidation would not be mandatory.  I'm quite sure this is not the
intention of any of the committee members.  I think Edwards was
mislead either by some confusion about consolidation vs. collaboration
or else by the discussion about geographical exceptions.  There may
end up some local latitude about the minimum district size of 2500,
but I'm quite sure that the committee intends every existing school
unit under that size to consolidate in some way.

If you can, listen to the subcommittee's work session this morning and
find out -- as I won't be able to.  You should be able to hear them
from 8:00-10:00 at:
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/audio/EDU_subcmte_AFA.html