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George Smith 11/21/2007

So how did things go so wrong?

The answer is simple. We made it too complex. We made it too costly. We made it too fast. We mandated it. And we failed to get key constituencies on board.

Today, school consolidation is threatened by a citizen initiative to repeal it, legislative bills to scale it back, and the upcoming votes of Mainers who are likely to reject their new school districts.

Let's go back to the beginning and remind ourselves of what it was we agreed upon. Believe it or not, just a year ago it appeared that we could get this done with little pain and no agony.

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:

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

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

n 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.

Perhaps most aggravating, this consolidation is likely to end up costing us more money, not less. Curriculums will have to be merged, with lots of new books and other material and teacher training. Teacher contracts will go up to the level of the highest contracts in the new districts. More principals will be hired. And the state's cuts in school aid in areas like transportation will shift more of the burden to the property tax.

Actually, it will be our property taxes that skyrocket because of this convoluted, poorly planned consolidation. Believe it or not, the state has already booked the savings on its side of the ledger!

Brookings clearly spelled out the problem, reporting, "Maine's schools and school districts employ an unusually large number of administrators and other non-instructional staffers whose presence drives up expenditures and suggests inefficiency. Maine's K-12 system employs, for example, one administrator for every 127 students, much higher than the average ratio of one to 212 and the nation's fourth-highest rate of administration." Likewise, Maine taxpayers support one school or district administrator for every 11.1 teachers -- the country's ninth highest number of administrators per teacher.

"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!

We're being force fed an unpleasant stew and it may be time to up chuck it all and start over.

The handwriting is certainly on the wall for my small town of Mount Vernon. On the huge new consolidated district school board, we'll be lucky to get one seat. There is no question that this mandatory consolidation scheme punishes rural Maine, just like the new state school funding formula does.

You remember rural Maine. It's where people used to live and work, where kids got good educations in small schools, where life was lived the way it should be.

Isn't it time to recognize that Maine has some great teachers? We ought to get out of their way and let them teach. Maine has the highest ratio of "other" payroll to instructional payroll, with $2.13 going to non-instructional payroll for every $1 going to instructional payroll. Don't blame teachers for this costly mess.

Public meetings are being held now to explain all of this to you. Please make a real effort to attend those meetings.

It's critical that you know all the impacts of consolidation -- because you're going to vote on it later. The consolidation plans must be submitted to the Department of Education by Dec. 1, with a response by Dec. 15. A referendum on the each plan must be held in effected communities starting on Jan. 15.

I can't wait to vote. How about you?

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

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