School Consolidation (Portland, Bangor, Augusta: sales, house, top school)

[Maine Writer]

I should be working instead of sitting at my desk. A neighbor stopped in to be sure I'd read the paper today. I haven't so I looked this up. Now it's time to get back to work.

Maine House repeals school consolidation law (http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=162822&zoneid=5 - broken link)

By Mal Leary, Capitol News Service
Thursday, April 10, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

AUGUSTA — With some lawmakers still angered by the governor’s veto this week of a bill containing changes to the state’s controversial school consolidation law, the House voted Wednesday night to scrap the law altogether.

[zedzul]

I will have to confess that i did not follow this one that closely.

and with out doing more research on it I would have to say that I'm of two minds about the whole consolidating idea.

On one hand shrinking the size of government and saving money in the budget is something i am avidly for, however I do not like to idea of taking local control of the schools away from the towns that they are in which this seams to do. Is there a better way to accomplish this? maybe give the towns the choice?

[flycessna]

I am not suprised !

[Northern Maine Land Man]

We simply can't afford bigger government. Consolidating numerous towns into one district with one superintendent cannot save money. The loss of a few superintendents in local districts cannot begin to compensate for the huge increases in staffs and bus routes, much less the chaos and dismay of most families.

Most Maine school districts are already sharing services where appropriate. If two towns want to merge to save costs, that's fine. Augusta does not understand that one size does not fit all, but the people of Maine have taught their legislators.

[BacktoNE]

It's another case of something that would work better in the southern half of the State than the northern. Northern Maine is too spread out, and has so many small towns, you have to think about how early those kids would have to get up and get on the bus every morning, and then how late would they get home at night???

The heavier population from, say, Augusta south would be more amenable to a consolidation plan, at least as I understand it the concept.

[Acadianlion]

The issue certainly is too many administrators. Too many NON teaching hangers on with an educational system that simply is beyond the ability of the small tax base to carry. There are too many unfunded mandates levied on the local school district that causes the property tax rates to drive people from their properties.

I wonder why this is so difficult for anyone to understand. We simply have an educational system that we as a state cannot afford.

We are also burdened by having two disparate kinds of populations. There is the greater Portland area, which extends all the way to the New Hampshire border, and then there is basically the rest of the state.

But however it gets sliced, the cost of education is simply too high for the 1.2 million people in Maine to afford.

So what is the choice? Shrinking the size of the bureaucracy that is driving the ship? Probably. Cutting out the numerous little schools in every community?

Or maybe just eliminating the "extra" cost of special needs students and placing the cost of special needs onto the state itself, and relieving the local towns from what is a geniune burden?

The bottom line is still the bottom line: the state cannot afford what the bureaucracy in Augusta is trying to jamb down everyone's throat.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

The issue certainly is too many administrators. Too many NON teaching hangers on with an educational system that simply is beyond the ability of the small tax base to carry. There are too many unfunded mandates levied on the local school district that causes the property tax rates to drive people from their properties.

I wonder why this is so difficult for anyone to understand. We simply have an educational system that we as a state cannot afford.

We are also burdened by having two disparate kinds of populations. There is the greater Portland area, which extends all the way to the New Hampshire border, and then there is basically the rest of the state.

But however it gets sliced, the cost of education is simply too high for the 1.2 million people in Maine to afford.

So what is the choice? Shrinking the size of the bureaucracy that is driving the ship? Probably. Cutting out the numerous little schools in every community?

Or maybe just eliminating the "extra" cost of special needs students and placing the cost of special needs onto the state itself, and relieving the local towns from what is a geniune burden?

The bottom line is still the bottom line: the state cannot afford what the bureaucracy in Augusta is trying to jamb down everyone's throat.

My goodness Acadionlion you sound positively CONSERVATIVE on this issue. No offense ment!. I agree with you 100% Doing nothing will accomplish nothing. The southern part of the state has plenty of money to run their schools as they see fit. Lets stop school funding from the State entirely and see how the other schools fend for themselves. It would not be pretty.
I don't know what the answer is.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

On the other side of the Maple Curtain is a state with no income tax, no sales tax and better schools than we have. They are funded at the local level. If Augusta would do away with our income tax, sales tax and unfunded mandates we would be delighted to do away with state aid to schools.

[RMoore007]

My brother's daughter was in this consolidated school befor going to Foxcroft Academy. And no it's not named after native americans. I'm told she liked the school and found it challenging enough coming from California schools. Is this what we are talking about in the OP's post? I can't seem to find the history of when or how these four towns elementary school was consolidated yet.

Welcome to SeDoMoCha Elementary School

[mainesnowflake]

In my opinion, it is not necessarily a great idea to consolidate schools because each town has there own set of goals, ideals, expectations, and many other factors that may cause conflict due to differences of opinion. If you have a town where the population is more affluent and a town that is mostly blue collar that are linked as a result of this program you will have issues. There are 2 different opinions on what is priority and what the main focus of education should be. Not that ones idea is better than the other but, there are two different views of how the school budget should be spent and the overall expecations of the students. The greatness of Maine is that we appreciate diversity and choose a place to live based on our own comfort levels. We should keep it that way.