Committee alternatives to Baldacci school plan aired

AUGUSTA, Maine --Proposals to promote the consolidation of Maine school districts as a way to save millions of dollars raised the Goldilocks question Thursday for two legislative panels.

Would a watered-down version of Gov. John Baldacci's original plan developed at the last minute by the Education Committee give local officials too much leeway or too little -- or would it be just right?

Just right was running a poor third in the initial rounds of reaction.

"Is it mandatory or is it not?" one apparent skeptic on the Appropriations Committee, Republican Sen. Karl Turner of Cumberland, wanted to know.

Even as Education Committee leaders laid out the details of their package for their Appropriations Committee colleagues, outside observers offered their own answers.

"More needs to be done in terms of what if they don't," warned Maine State Chamber of Commerce President Dana Connors.

Unveiling a $6.4 billion budget package on Jan. 5, Baldacci called for drastically reducing local layers of school system administration by shrinking 152 district administrations to 26 units. His budget package would book $36.5 million in savings for fiscal 2009.

Beyond generating savings, the Baldacci administration said regionalization would improve students' performance by establishing a more unified interpretation of academic standards.

In the past two months, and especially during the last week, Education panelists have thrashed out ways to encourage collaboration among school systems and whether and how to force consolidations.

The committee's majority report would establish 26 regional planning alliances and set up a process to let communities choose partners for collaboration or consolidation over two years.

Consolidation plans would be required for school units with less than 1,200 pupils.

Questions of compliance or enforcement aside, the timeline envisioned by the majority report is too lax for some: steps toward district-to-district collaboration to be taken by fiscal 2009 and actual consolidation move possibly by fiscal 2010.

Nonetheless, the committee majority would meet the governor's 2009 savings target by augmenting efficiencies as needed with reductions in state aid.

Potential incentives for consolidation might involve school construction projects or municipal tax advantages still to be specified.

"Kind of undefined," Baldacci said by way of offering his first-look view.

"I'm concerned that they're not going far enough," he said.

Education Committee Senate Chairman Peter Bowman, D-Kittery, backed by Democratic Senate leader Elizabeth Mitchell of Vassalboro, who also serves on the committee, told fellow lawmakers if they thought the plan took too long to do too little, they should appreciate the difficulty of building broad support behind any one approach.

"If you try to do too much too fast, one could have a lot of problems," Bowman said.

Mitchell, echoing another Bowman point, told the Appropriations panel that her committee, which had been given until Thursday to submit its report, had not finished its work and still hoped to refine its recommendations.

Apologizing for any "fuzziness," she said, "we know we have a lot more work to do."

Another proposal was offered Thursday by Republican Sen. Peter Mills of Cornville, who would have the State Board of Education play a lead role in developing one or more consolidation plans moving to no more than 80 units with an average size of more than 2,500 students.

As the joint meeting of the Education and Appropriations committees continued, the Taxation Committee gathered to review portions of the Baldacci budget package within its purview -- including the governor's call for a $1-per-pack boost in the cigarette tax.

Taxation panel recommendations are due before the Appropriations Committee on Monday.

A key issue for Baldacci, the state chamber of commerce and others is how to guarantee that any savings resulting for restructuring the state's network of school systems translates in tax relief.

In that, the current debate resounds with arguments of earlier ones over property tax reform.

A second-year status report issued by the Baldacci administration in January on the school funding legislation known as LD 1 purported to show that a state effort to ramp up aid to local schools while setting target caps on local spending has had some success in tamping down property tax increases.

But at the same time Baldacci pointed to findings by the state planning office that suggested 81 percent of school administrative units exceeded recommended growth limits last year.

The law referred to as LD 1 pointed the state's share of local education funding toward 55 percent by 2009 and established growth limits for the state, municipalities, counties and school systems.

Late last month, state Education Commissioner Susan Gendron announced the administration was withdrawing a proposal that would have boosted some student-teacher ratios.

Officials had said state savings of $25 million over the next two years from such changes would have been reinvested for making laptop computers available in grades 9-12, as is currently done in grades 7 and 8, and to fund $2,000 college scholarships for high school graduates who enroll in the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System or Maine Maritime Academy.

Gendron said she and Baldacci remain committed to the expanded laptop program and the scholarships.