Thanks to those members of the University of Maine’s Department of Resource Economics and Policy whose column, “Should school districts consolidate?” (BDN, April 5), highlighted some important considerations regarding Gov. Baldacci’s desire to bring wider-spread consolidation of public schooling to our state.

A recent Maine Public Broadcasting “Maine Watch” program raised similar questions concerning the wholesale restructuring of our educational system based solely on data derived from relatively narrow parameters in terms of the overall cost savings picture. While further scrutiny of true (long-term) economic costs is needed and should be an integral part of public policy-making, it must also be noted, amidst the number-crunching, that our children’s future must not continue to be spoken of only in terms of dollar savings. That is, not if indeed we want to save money.

For, if we continue to give away tens of billions of dollars to such things as greedy corporate special interests and unneeded, unproven Star Wars-type weapons systems then we will continue to condemn our society to an existence of broken communities wherein children are all bussed to their schools, equipped not with the security of a peaceful childhood but with a broken laptop, backpack full of expensive anti-anxiety medications and the certainty that they remain an inconvenience to the adults around them.

Thomas Mooney

Bangor