I called Ted back in early November to ask him why he didn't support the repeal of the school consolidation law. He felt that it was an unpleasant, but necessary step so the State could reduce the amount it spends on schools, since this is an ever-increasing percentage of the yearly budget, despite dwindling enrollments. He talked about huge school organizational changes that have happened historically Maine, and how they are always painful and unpopular. <br><br>I tried to present him with some of the extremely negative impacts that the law was going to have on some schools. He seemed not to have a great deal of sympathy for MDI's plight, and felt that local school decision-making powers were not in the best interest of the communities as a whole, but was concerned about schools like Trenton and Lamoine, due to the fact that raising teacher salaries there were going to have a devastating effect on the school budgets there. He did
suggest that perhaps school mergers were an unpleasant, but cost-effective solution to some of these situations down the road.<br><br><b><i>Dick Atlee <atlee@umd.edu></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> This is Skip Greenlaw's census of House sentiment on repeal (I've <br>reformatted it into a single column for email). I'm personally curious <br>as to why people like Ted Koffman are against it. Does anyone have any <br>thoughts on this they could share with the list?<br><br>Admittedly, a huge amount of work has gone into this on the part of <br>RPC's, but even if the law were repealed, if an RPC felt the results of <br>their work was better than what they had before, they could continue on <br>track -- as I recall, whatever help the DoE was going to provide for <br>this process has been pretty well expended by now, anyway. For existing <br>SAD's, repeal wouldn't seem to
make any difference one way or the other. <br> But it makes a huge difference for the communities who are suffering <br>under the potential effects of the law, in many cases even with the new <br>mods that will probably survive a veto.<br><br>So what I'm wondering is whether anyone can provide a non-DoE rationale <br>for why the law shouldn't simply be repealed. Is there any reason that <br>we all shouldn't be lobbying our reps to make a repeal bill veto-proof?<br><br>Dick<br><br>-------- Original Message --------<br>Subject: YEAS/NAYS/UNDECIDED<br>Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:37:12 -0400<br>From: skipgreenlaw <skipg@hypernet.com><br>To: skipgreenlaw <skipg@hypernet.com><br><br>Good morning everyone,<br><br>Here is a list of the legislators who have indicated how they will vote<br>on repeal of the school consolidation law. YEA means they will vote to<br>repeal; NAY means that they will _not_ vote to repeal; UNDECIDED means<br>just that or in some cases may mean they
don't want to tell us. This<br>list is comprised of members of the House of Representatives.<br>After their name R= Republican, D=Democrat, U= unenrolled<br><br><br>YEAS (26)<br><br>Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou<br>Jacqueline Lundeen, D-Mars Hill<br>Richard Cleary, D-Houlton<br>Henry Joy, R-Crystal<br>Hebert Clark, D-Millinocket<br>Jeffrey Gifford, R-Lincoln<br>Benjamin Pratt, D-Eddington<br>Christian Greeley, R-Levant<br>Peter Johnson, R-Greenville<br>Howard McFadden, R-Dennysville<br>Robert Eaton, D-Sullivan<br>James Schatz, D-Blue Hill<br>Robert Crosthwaite, R-Ellsworth<br>Lance Weddell, D-Frankfort<br>Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport<br>Wendy Pieh, D-Bremen<br>Kenneth Fletcher, R-Winslow<br>W. Bruce MacDonald, D-Boothbay<br>Philip Curtis, R-Madison<br>Tom Savielo, U-Wilton<br>John Patrick, D-Rumford<br>Roberta Muse, R-Fryeburg<br>Gary Moore, R-Standish<br>Susan Austin, R-Gray<br>Sarah Lewin, R-Eliot<br>Windol Weaver, R-York<br><br>NAYS (18)<br><br>Troy Dale Jackson,
D-Allagash<br>Jeremy Fischer, D- Presque Isle<br>Sean Faircloth, D-Bangor<br>Emily Cain, D-Orono<br>Joshua Tardy, R-Newport<br>Thedore Koffman, D-Bar Harbor<br>Jayne Crosby Giles, R-Belfast<br>Christopher Rector, R-Thomaston<br>Elizabeth Miller, D-Somerville<br>Charles Priest, D-Brunswick<br>Elaine Maksa, D-Lewiston<br>Janet Mills, D-Farmington<br>Sawin Millett, R-Waterford<br>David Webster, D-Freeport<br>Mark Bryant, D-Windam<br>John Brautigam, D-Falmouth<br>Boyd Marley, D-Portland<br>Anne Haskell, D-Portland<br><br>UNDECIDED (13)<br><br>Charles Fisher, D-Brewer<br>Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven<br>Kimberly Silsby, D-Augusta<br>Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick<br>Marilyn Canavan, D-Waterville<br>Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls<br>Raymond Pineau, D-Jay<br>James Hamper, R-Oxford<br>Cynthia Dill, D-Cape Elizabeth<br>David Farrington, D-Gorham<br>John Tuttle, D-Sanford<br>Dawn Hill, D-York<br>Alan Casavant, D-Biddeford<br><br>I'll add another list for senators another
time.<br><br>We all need to continue to call our legislators to ask them to vote to<br>repeal the school consolidation. Please share those conservations with<br>me so I can keep a tally. Let me know if you think it would be<br>helpful for any of us to talk with your legislator. Also, with regard<br>to the names listed above, it would be a kind gesture on your part to<br>call and thank any of the legislators who are voting YEA. Call the<br>legislators who are voting NAY and see if you can get them to change<br>their minds. In the case of the undecideds, perhaps you can provide<br>them some information which will help them decide to vote.<br><br>More later.<br><br>Thanks, Skip<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Local-Maine-Schools mailing list<br>To send a message to the list, write to:<br> Local-Maine-Schools@mainetalk.org<br>To unsubscribe or change subscription settings:<br>
http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/local-maine-schools_mainetalk.org<br> <br></skipg@hypernet.com></skipg@hypernet.com></blockquote><br><p> 
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