[Local-Maine-Schools] Fwd: MPBN/School Consolidation Reporting

[Gail Marshall]

A letter I sent to Maine Public Radio after hearing the report I link  
to in the article. The comments I refer to are towards the end of the  
clip.
I hope you find it useful.
Thank you,
Gail
(BTW, Like many of you, I am a long-time dues-paying member of the  
station.)

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Gail Marshall <gmarshall at wildmoo.net>
> Date: February 28, 2008 9:54:24 PM EST
> To: cbeck at mpbn.net, kshortall at mpbn.net
> Cc: Hannah Pingree <hannah at pingree.com>, Dennis Damon  
> <dsdamon at panax.com>, Ted Koffman <koffman at coa.edu>
> Subject: MPBN/School Consolidation Reporting
>
> Mr. Beck and Mr. Shortall,
>
> I am disappointed by AJ Higgins' decision to include in his Maine  
> Things Considered February 28th report of the Kids Count study,  
> Governor Baldacci's unsubstantiated assertion that the school union  
> amendment to the school consolidation repair bill furthers the  
> interests of only superintendents and school administrators and  
> stands in the way of providing children "scholarships and  
> technology to compete in a global economy." http://www.mpbn.net/asx/ 
> 080228kids.asx
> Has anyone in your organization investigated whether or not there  
> is any factual basis to the 'oft-repeated assertion by this  
> administration that school unions cost more than other forms of  
> governance? If you have found any data that goes beyond bald  
> assertions, I would appreciate seeing it. The Department of  
> Education's inveterate statistician, David Silvernail, testified to  
> the Education Committee that there is no ability to establish a  
> causal relationship between governance structure and cost. Gordon  
> Donaldson, professor of Education at UMO, has repeatedly studied  
> this issue and found no correlation.  IF there are higher costs in  
> a school union, Dr. Silvernail opined it is more likely because a  
> higher percentage of Unions are in more prosperous regions of the  
> state and they spend more money on instruction. In the elementary  
> school in my town of Mount Desert we are fortunate to be able to  
> appropriate and spend far more than the wholly inadequate EPS  
> system prescribes. We spend it on  French for K-8, special  
> education, gifted and talented programs, counseling, art, music,  
> physical education, sports, technology, including laptops down to  
> 4th grade, small class sizes and so much more. Further, it is our  
> municipal taxpayers, not the state, who tax themselves and pay for  
> it all.
> Last year this same administration asserted that the consolidation  
> bill would save $32 million dollars in the first year. Their  
> assertions were never adequately vetted. There are no savings on  
> the horizon.
> They said there would be no "cost-shifting" between towns forced to  
> consolidated. It was demonstrably false at the time of the  
> utterance. Circumstances everywhere have borne that out.
> They said combining disparate teacher contracts would not be very  
> problematic. Having already done that in a collegial, not a forced  
> setting, I know better.  But really, anyone without a rocket  
> science degree could have correctly guessed "false".
> They said there would be no loss of local control and yet they  
> attempt to supplant local decision-makers with advisory boards and  
> then declare "regional' the new "local."
> They said bigger systems can manage money better, and yet the State  
> is bleeding red ink which will soon precipitate cutbacks in state  
> education aid staff members of DOE call "brutal". That will really  
> leave Maine's kids disadvantaged unless we inefficient little towns  
> can bail them out by picking up the tab (again). And the biggest  
> school system in the state, Portland, shocked its citizens with  
> major overspending last year.
> Wouldn't you think that by now a reasonably prudent news  
> organization would take what they say on this subject with a grain  
> of salt?
> I have been very disappointed by the caliber of reporting on this  
> issue by MPBN from the beginning. Rarely have I  heard more than  
> drive-by reporting that usually highly correlates to Department of  
> Education press releases or Governor Baldacci's pronouncements.  I  
> have an independent perspective because I have been involved in  
> this debate since the beginning. But the broader implications of  
> this for my trust in MPBN's reporting is troubling. How nuanced and  
> vetted is the rest of the reporting I hear on issues about which I  
> have no independent knowledge? How can I maintain confidence that  
> it is any less superficial and slanted?
> Before MPBN further prejudices your listeners against school Unions  
> with quick and dirty sound bites, I invite you to do a little  
> investigative journalism. Visit us in Union 98 on Mount Desert  
> Island, the home of the proponents of the amendment. Our school  
> Union already functions the way we are proposing the Legislature  
> permit us and others to coalesce. You might learn that we and our  
> colleagues in other Unions are not the reckless spendthrifts we  
> have been made out to be, that with our superintendents and  
> administrators we have the best interests of our children at the  
> center of or work, and that we do a pretty fair job of it.
> Thank you,
> Gail Marshall
> PS: Before you come to visit, you might check out our website that  
> is a reliable clearinghouse of news and information about school  
> consolidation. http://mdischools.net/
>
>

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