[Local-Maine-Schools] Fwd: Ideas for amending the Reorganizaiton Law

[Dick Atlee]

A letter from the Maine Heritage Policy Center....

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Ideas for amending the Reorganizaiton Law
Date: 	Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:02:03 -0500
From: 	Steve Bowen <sbowen at mainepolicy.org>
To: 	'RICHARD GOULD' <perf3170rag at verizon.net> (and many others)

Dear Small Schools Coalition members,

I know all of you are busy trying to get reorganization plans in place
for the Dec. 1 deadline (as well doing your regular jobs of providing an
education to thousands of Maine's young people!) but I have not given up
hope that the consolidation law may be substantially altered during the
upcoming legislative session.  Though I know Skip Greenlaw's effort is
off to a great start, I don't think an outright repeal of the law is a
realistic possibility politically for this next session. My hope is that
the law will be amended in some way to make it at least more workable
for all of you if not outright helpful.  I think legislators going back
to Augusta in January are going to be anxious to hear some alternative
ideas, and I want to make sure we have some to put in front of them.

My organization, the Maine Heritage Policy Center, proposed an Education
Service District-based alternative to the Governor's proposal almost a
year ago, and we plan to roll out a follow-up publication sometime in
the next few weeks proposing changes to the current reorganization law.
I personally have a few ideas for reform that I think would be useful,
such as allowing for some kind of "school union"-type alternative that
would allow for shared services without actually merging districts
together, allowing those RSU's that are created to have more flexibility
in their funding formulas, and placing a renewed emphasis on dealing
meaningfully with state and federal mandates as cost drivers for local
districts.

I write to you today because I'd like to do something that the Governor
did not do when he proposed this district consolidation idea a year ago,
which is to seek your input on ways that the law can be amended in order
to achieve some of the Governor's original goals, such as cost savings,
but in a much more workable way*.  My question to you, therefore, is in
what ways would you change the current law, short of outright repeal,
that would allow for the improved efficiencies and cost savings that the
Governor and Legislature want, but would be far simpler to implement
effectively?  There must be a way that we can indeed squeeze some
inefficiencies out of the system without completely reinventing the
wheel, but what would you suggest as alternatives, big or small, to the
clearly flawed law already in place?*

I welcome your thoughts by email or by phone, and I can assure you that
any communications to me will remain confidential.  I plan to assemble a
list of ideas to put back before you in a couple of weeks, in the hope
that a sensible collection of reform ideas that have been fully thought
out can then be put before the legislature in January.

In closing, I truly think that the statewide backlash against the
current law means that an opportunity is before us to make meaningful
changes to it in the upcoming legislative session.  Working now to
create some realistic and sensible alternatives will help set the table
for what I hope is a productive legislative session, one that will
result in a much better approach to containing rising costs and
improving the quality of Maine schools than what we have in front of us
at this point.

Thanks in advance for your time and attention, and I look forward to
hearing from you.

Stephen Bowen
Education Policy Analyst
The Maine Heritage Policy Center
P.O. Box 7829
Portland, ME 04112
207.321.2550 (office)
207.691.7132 (cell)
http://www.mainepolicy.org