[Local-Maine-Schools] Fwd: Excellent editorial (in plain text)

[Dick Atlee]

Skip sent the following great editorial out as a large PDF file.  Here 
it is in plain text to save a bit of space for folks on this list:

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The Native Conservative
Let's put school consolidation to rest as a failed experiment
George Smith
Kennebec Journal / Morning Sentinel
October 28, 2009
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/view/columns/7026784.html

We have no reason to cling to the fantasy that school consolidation has 
saved money, streamlined bureaucracy or improved education. The most 
kindly thing I can say is: it made sense at the time.

But the governor and Legislature fumbled the ball, making consolidation 
too complex and costly. They booked immediate savings for the state, cut 
education funding to the towns, and then fined towns that noticed the 
emperor was wearing no clothes and voted "no" on the whole deal.

Senate President Libby Mitchell, a very strong advocate for education, 
told me simply and accurately, "We were bamboozled."

On Nov. 3, you can put this miserable beast to rest by voting "yes" on 
Question 3, to repeal the consolidation mandate. It's the right thing to 
do. Don't be bamboozled by claims that consolidation has worked or that 
repeal will cost money.

Three years ago, we thought we could get consolidation done with little 
pain and some savings.

The Brookings Institution's "Plan for Sustainable Prosperity and Quality 
Places," created for GrowSmart Maine, set our course with the following 
three very sensible recommendations.

* Reduce K-12 administrative expenditures to the vicinity of the 
national average of $195 per pupil, and save about $25 million.

* Fully fund and enlarge the Fund for the Efficient Delivery of 
Education Services to promote voluntary collaborations between schools 
and districts to reduce K-12 costs.

* Appoint a high-level school district reorganization committee to 
substantially reduce the number of school administrative units.

This would have given us a thoughtful, collaborative, voluntary process 
to wring inefficiencies out of our school administrative structure and 
systems and encourage collaborations to reduce costs -- just the 
opposite of the chaotic, mandatory and hasty consolidation we're now 
suffering.

"Maine could realize between $10 million and $35 million in annual K-12 
education-costs savings without closing or consolidating a single school 
by reducing administration costs to various national or 
Maine-consolidated-district standards," concluded Brookings.

The savings could be achieved without consolidation. And collaborative 
efforts between schools and districts could help reduce costs too -- 
without consolidation.

When asked on Sept. 17 if consolidation has actually saved money, 
Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said it's too early to know. "I 
really don't think it will be until the end of the year when we know 
what we've achieved," she said.

That begs the question: How come the state already booked $30 million in 
savings and cut state education aid by that amount?

It's hard to believe Gendron hasn't heard what's happened to our 
neighbors. The towns of Alna, Wiscasset, Whitefield, Windsor, Westport 
Island, Palermo, Chelsea and Somerville have voted down their RSU budget 
three times because of budgets that exceed the $25.9 million spent on 
the eight towns' schools during the 2008-09 school year, before the 
towns consolidated.

None of those towns has been able to levy taxes this year because none 
has a school budget.

Property taxes in Monmouth rose by $300,000 the first year after voters 
approved consolidation.

Winthrop and Fayette voters rejected consolidating with Maranacook 
School communities, partly because no savings were identified, and now 
face state fines of $176,000 and $39,000 respectively.

Those who predict disaster if we repeal the consolidation mandate are 
wrong. Sixty-five urban and suburban schools didn't have to consolidate, 
so repeal means nothing to them.

Many rural towns rejected consolidation, and removing the mandate will 
help them.

Then there are those towns that supported consolidation. They should 
have the option of continuing in their new consolidated RSU. In my 
school district, the RSU has changed only the way we are governed.

Before consolidation, the Maranacook School Union consisted of four 
towns: Manchester, Readfield, Wayne, and Mount Vernon.

After consolidation, the Maranacook RSU consists of the same four towns. 
We have the same superintendent and same schools.

This result comes after a horrendously difficult process in which dozens 
of stalwart citizens grappled with the mandate, only to emerge, battered 
and bruised, to find themselves in the very same place where they started.

Gendron counts my district as a "win" in her consolidation column. Her 
victory column also includes all the towns that didn't have to consolidate.

She could give Afghanistan's President Karzai lessons on how to 
manipulate and report votes.

The truth is this: Voters rejected plans involving 125 existing school 
units. Follow their lead. The horse is dead; stop beating it. Vote "yes" 
to end Maine's school consolidation nightmare.

George Smith is executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine. 
He lives in Mount Vernon and can be reached at george at samcef.org.