Avoid ‘Wal-Martization’ of schools

Local communities, neighborhood schools and direct democracy; these important Maine institutions are under assault by those who mistakenly believe we can save money by remolding Maine to fit the Wal-Mart model. These attacks are on all facets of local government, but the stakes are highest in the battle to keep community involvement in our schools. Here is where the proponents of “regionalization” would do the most harm to our traditional values and the future of our state.

Gov. Baldacci, the most powerful proponent of regionalization, appointed a task force last January to increase the “efficiency” of our K-12 schools. He failed to appoint teachers, school board members, superintendents, principals or anyone with practical experience. Instead the governor appointed academics and representatives of the educational establishment. Reflecting the governor’s bias, the task force listened to the commissioner of education and many consultants, but not teachers or local school board members.

Now the report is complete and the output reflects the input. It calls for radical changes in the way we educate our children, pointing away from community-based education toward a regional system completely dominated by state government. Specifically the report calls for:

. a new regional level of educational bureaucracy;

. a “significant” increase in money for the Department of Education;

. eliminating school unions;

. much larger school districts;

. eliminating more than a hundred local school boards and eventually local schools;

. making it impossible for many Maine towns to have any representation on a school board; and

. eliminating our regional four year vocational high schools.

The governor asked educational consultants and bureaucrats how to save money. Their answer was give less control to local people and less money to our local schools, while giving more money and control to consultants and bureaucrats. This report ignores what is currently working, flies in the face of Maine values and current educational research, and is incredibly anti-democratic.

The radical revisions called for in the report belie the fact that Forbes Magazine recently cited Maine for getting the most bang for its educational dollar. The task force does acknowledge that Maine schools perform very well in standard tests and has one of the lowest dropout rates, but it never occurs to them that the structure of our schools might have something to do with these successes. Consider the task force’s argument for closing our four-year vocational high schools. Ask any educator familiar with these schools, ask the parents of students in them, and you will learn that we have a low dropout rate because we provide educational opportunity that is relevant to the varied needs of our young people. The task force did not have time to talk with voc-ed parents.

Maine has always seen local involvement and real communities as the basic building block of good schools. Recent educational research supports our traditional views and many large schools systems across the country are now spending millions of dollars trying to replicate our model. But Maine values and research had little impact on the task force report that calls for the Wal-Martization of Maine schools. In the 1950s Maine passed the Sinclair Act to eliminate smaller schools. Twelve years after it passed, we had 50,000 more students in 300 fewer schools. Not enough says the report, which calls for mega-schools that will force many children to spend four hours a day on a school bus just to get to a place where the principal doesn’t even know their name.

The report’s anti-democratic bias is reflected in its call to eliminate instantly more than a hundred school boards, then create mega-school districts with no more than eleven citizens on the school board and no weighted votes. To understand how this will totally disenfranchise many Maine municipalities, consider what would be a typical new district under the task force rules. It might have three small cities and twenty small towns. Reflecting one-person, one- vote, eight of the representatives of the school committee would have to be from the cities, so no more than three could be divided among the 20 towns. In this typical new mega-district, 17 towns would have no representation on the board setting policy for their children. How long would it be before the small towns with no representation had no school? What effect would this have on support for educational funding? If it is vital to involve all parents in order to leave no child behind, how do we help by moving their children to an intimidating school forty miles away?

The first charge of our elected officials is to do no harm to the things that make Maine such a wonderful place to live and raise a family. Implementing this report would do more to end the unique virtues of Maine than 30 casinos, and as the voters come to understand this radical assault on our local schools they will resist it with corresponding fervor. The fight begins with a call to your legislator and if you are willing to do more call me. I will be in Augusta working to preserve our Maine communities and need the help of everyone who thinks the Maine way life is worth fighting for. You can call me at 542-5499 or e-mail me at myschool@midcoast.com

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Barbara Merrill, of Appleton, is a lawyer whose practice specializes in legislative representation for nonprofits.