[Local-Maine-Schools] Dear John . . .

[Dick Atlee]

Although my state reps have long known my feelings on this subject, I 
realized the other day, when I heard my governor talk about the need for 
real people to come forward to support him in his efforts to cripple 
Maine education, that(a) he wasn't who I'd thought he was, and (b) I 
hadn't actually contacted him on this issue.

So, too late though it may be in his case, I sent him the following 
letter today in postal mail, with a real Maine (Acadia Park 60c) stamp 
on it.  (For those of a Republican persuasion, I apologize for the 
in-your-face Democratic nature of the letter, but that is precisely why 
I felt I needed to talk to him, non-partisan though this issue is.)

If there are key non-Union98 state legislators for whom it would be 
useful to hear from us at this stage, I hope someone will lay them out 
explicitly.  Thanks.

Dick

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Governor John Baldacci
1 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0001

Governor Baldacci,

I did a lot of work for you in the last election, as one of the 
activists with the Hancock County Democratic Committee who worked for 
Democratic candidates and hustled out the Democratic vote that carried 
you over the incredible hatred of many Republicans that saw us having to 
replace Baldacci signs where no others were torn down.   I personally 
researched and prepared a detailed slide presentation analyzing the 
dangers of TABOR, and arranged a library debate on the topic at my 
hometown library at which I gave that presentation.  I wrote letters to 
the editor and put up posters.  I did poll-watching on Election Day.  I 
was thrilled at the results.

In the case of Governor John Baldacci, that is no longer the case.

When the destructive and misleading school consolidation plan first came 
out, I, like many others, assumed it was just another example of Susan 
Gendron's and the DoE's half-baked ideas that have wreaked havoc on 
Maine education.  After all, there was no data to support it; the only 
hard date available was from UM professor Gordon Donaldson, and that 
data explicitly called into question the assumption that administrative 
costs were out of line and that savings would result from administrative 
consolidation.  And when, during the public meeting in Bangor, you 
turned to Ms. Gendron to ask if something mentioned in a question was 
actually part of the plan, my sense grew that you honestly were not 
responsible for that plan.

Still, there was the fact that it had been very strategically submitted 
as part the budget, with a timeline too short to manage responsibly…

But now you have removed all doubt about your connection to this 
disaster-about-to-happen.  You have asked the REAL people of Maine to 
step forward and support you.  You say you have only heard from the 
self-serving education community.  Just who do you think these 
"self-serving" people are, and whom do you think they represent?

If it were only superintendents and teachers who have spoken up about 
this issue, there might be a shred of validity in your concern about the 
"self-servingness" of whom you are hearing from.  But the people turning 
out at meetings and in the press include tax-paying parents, tax-paying 
school committee members (who work incredibly hard for zero pay), and 
business leaders who recognize the importance to state development of a 
good educational reputation that only comes from a well-functioning 
educational system.  These people are representing interests of the 
children of the state.  In labeling them as self-serving, you have 
become indistinguishable from the broad-brush Republicans who love to 
claim that environmental groups are "special interests."

Are you looking for support from a chorus of disgruntled TABOR 
supporters, who were quite ready to countenance the wreckage of 
education that occurred in Colorado, and who are no more capable of 
recognizing the lack of data supporting tax relief in this plan than 
they were in TABOR?  Is what we get in exchange for defeating TABOR 
nothing more than a specialized son-of-TABOR that offers a perhaps 
greater capability for crippling education, while ignoring all other 
aspects of State operation in its dubious search for savings?

  One of the flaws in TABOR was that the State could completely ignore 
the crippling effects of the law if it so chose, while the communities 
which are the heart of the state could not.  Your plan is deja-vu in 
this respect as well.

As a well-known commentator might say, "Dude, where's my Governor?"  My 
Governor would have stepped in when he saw just how dangerous the 
proposal he had bought into was, and taken some heat for a more careful, 
more potentially effective assault on taxes.  But he apparently doesn't 
live here any more.


Disappointed,

Dick Atlee
Southwest Harbor