[Local-Maine-Schools] Basis of fiscal note for LD 1932?

[Brian Hubbell]

David,

I'll try one more time.

Is the Department asserting that these same union school systems could
be operated for $1000 per student less, either as SADs or as municipal
school districts, while maintaining the same schools and instructional
services?

Yes or no.

--Brian

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On Feb 15, 2008 4:21 PM, Connerty-Marin, David
<David.Connerty-Marin at maine.gov> wrote:
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> Brian,
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> Thank you for your email last week asking for the basis of the fiscal note
> for LD 1932.  As you know, it is the Legislature's Office of Fiscal and
> Program Review that determines fiscal notes, not the Executive Branch.
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> The data provided to the Office of Fiscal and Program Review show clearly
> that school administrative units (SAUs) in school unions cost more to
> operate than those in any other type of governance structure. In similarly
> sized SAUs, SADs and CSDs cost less to operate than units that are in
> unions.
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> School size and other potential factors do not change the data. There are
> SADs with small schools, such as SAD 4 in Guilford, that also operate for
> less per pupil than similar SAUs in unions.  SADs have a single school board
> and a single budget. Most unions have a proliferation of decision-making
> authorities and therefore there is less likelihood that any one entity will
> look comprehensively at either the finances or the educational program.
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> I am attaching three items that may be of interest: a one-pager with
> information about school unions and efficiency; a spreadsheet showing
> per-pupil costs for different types of governance (I think this may already
> be on your website); and several slides from a presentation by Dr. David
> Silvernail of the Maine Educational Policy Research Institute at USM –
> information he presented to the Education Committee some weeks ago on this
> topic.
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> David
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> David Connerty-Marin
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> Director of Communications
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> Maine Department of Education
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>  ________________________________
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> From: Brian Hubbell [mailto:sparkflashgap at gmail.com]
>
>  Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 8:47 AM
>  To: Connerty-Marin, David; David Silvernail
>  Cc: local-maine-schools at mainetalk.org
>  Subject: Basis of fiscal note for LD 1932?
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> To: David Connerty-Martin, Maine Department of Education
>  Cc: David Silvernail, Director, Center for Educational Policy, USM
>  Re: Basis of fiscal note for LD 1932?
>  Date: February 7, 2008
>
>  I was just reading the fiscal note attached to the Education Committee's
> minority report on LD 1932 and I'm particularly curious about the following:
>
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> Information provided by the Department of Education indicates that, for
> fiscal year 2005-06,  the average per-pupil expenditures for school unions
> that served pre-kindergarten to grade 8 students was $1,009 higher than the
> state average and $1,385 higher for school unions that served
> pre-kindergarten to grade 12 students.
>
>
>  Granting for the moment that the raw data underlying the correlation is
> accurate, I'm very interested in what causal relationship is implied here.
>
>  Is the Department asserting that these same school systems could be
> operated for $1000 per student less, either as SADs or as municipal school
> districts, while maintaining the same schools and instructional services?
>
>  Yes or no.
>
>  If so, I'd be most interested to see the modeling that explains how school
> union governance, in itself, generates those superfluous costs.
>
>  And, if not, I'd observe that the suggestion borders on statistical fraud.
>
>  Brian Hubbell,
>  Bar Harbor