[Local-Maine-Schools] Rep Pingree at the Education Committee forum (audio links)

[Brian Hubbell]

Here's a treat for those of you who weren't able to listen to the
Education Committee's forum on Friday (at least for those of you with
a broadband internet connection).

The links (in two different audio formats) below will take you to an
audio recording of Representative Pingree's discussion with the
Committee regarding Mount Desert Island's reorganization plan, along
with some Committee members' questions about the plan and the
cost-sharing arrangements of Unions and CSDs.

After Representative Pingree's presentation, in the recording you can hear:
* Rep. Edgecomb fleshing out some more details from his proposal for
'USA's as an alternative model to RSUs,
* Senator Mills asking for more specific information from MDI and
voicing concern about Unions in relation to towns with large
differences in valuation, suggesting that Unions (unlike U98)
inequitably assess strictly on the basis of enrollment (?)
* Rep Edgecomb explaining that Unions can share by different formulas
* Rep Norton reiterating Mills' concern regarding equitable
cost-sharing between rich towns vs poor in unions suggesting some
conflict (?) between this and GPA
* Rep Finch pointing out that, if there are problems negotiating
regional relationships in areas like MDI that currently work together,
then it's far more difficult to accomplish in areas where there is no
existing relationship and asking also if Pingree recommends that MDI
* Rep Edgecomb responding by pointing out that, in his own district's
Union 102, Westmanland and Woodland, respectively the richest and
poorest towns in Aroostook County, worked "beautifully" together under
a Union structure.
* Rep Harlow pre-emptively (and somewhat rhetorically) objecting to
the possibility of Portland subsidizing inefficient rural schools to
keep them operating.
* Mills arguing again against the concept of per capita educational
spending, stating that that the State subsidizes MDI through teachers'
pensions, and claiming that "Unions are just a way to keep putting the
screws to poor towns" -- although afterward allowing that this may not
be the case on MDI.

Representative Pingree did an excellent job conveying MDI's situation
and at the same time, I believe, impressed more than a few of the
other legislators of both parties who were attending.  Two
presentations later, Senator Sherman opened his own testimony with an
observation that he would have paid admission to hear this part of the
forum and declared, with certain admiration, that Representative
Pingree was someone who plainly knows how to stand her ground.

* Rep Pingree discusses MDI's plan with the Education Committee at 01/04 forum:
http://mdischools.net/20080104_EdComm_audio/20080104_Pingree_at_EdComm.wav
 (17Mb)
http://mdischools.net/20080104_EdComm_audio/20080104_Pingree_at_EdComm.mp3
(50Mb)