A bright future for Maine is dependent upon providing the highest quality public education. We have made a good start, but we have a long way to go and we will not assemble the public support required to finish the journey until we put the debate over the size of school districts in our rear view mirror.

The battle has gone on for the last 50 years, and now the Baldacci administration has made it the centerpiece of educational reform. The mega-district advocates say if we force all cities and towns into 35 districts, we would save $30 million.

The community schools proponents, myself included, point out that all studies show that the extensive school consolidation of the 1950s and 60s didn’t save any money.

The mega-district advocates argue that if we just got rid of 150 superintendents we’d save a bundle.

The local control folks say that is naive, that for every superintendent who is eliminated, extra folks will be added in the front office.

Local school advocates say this is about control not money. It’s about who runs our schools, the state or the parents and the local folks.

We could keep this debate going for years, but it is a luxury we cannot afford.

The Select Panel of the Board of Education, which called for 35 school units, had more important recommendations which will be lost in the unit size debate. They proposed a statewide pay scale for teachers and a proportion of teacher compensation based on performance.

These are big ideas which could lead to real progress, but to implement them we will need the active engagement of every Maine citizen who cares deeply about quality education. T

hat is not going to happen as long as we are fighting over the size of local school units because this issue pits the friends of public schools against each other and the State Department of Education.

Most of the folks who care deeply about their schools in Houlton are going to fight against a plan which will force them into a mega-district with Presque Isle and every town in between.

The folks in Orono are going to fight to save their excellent school system, as are the folks in Hampden, Camden, Cumberland, Kennebunk, etc. In the end, nothing will result from this except lost opportunities.

So how do we short circuit this debate so that both sides can walk away winners and we can move onto what is doable and necessary?

We take the state dollar out of the administration equation. If the state wasn’t paying one cent for administrative costs, then why would the state have to concern itself with the size of school units?

To make my point, let me compare it to trash collection in Portland. We don’t have trash collection in Appleton, so why don’t I resent all the tax money that is spent on this in Portland?

Because Portland people are paying for it. It doesn’t affect me. It is literally none of my business. We can do the same thing with this administration issue if we simply have the state make the decision not to subsidize any of the costs of school administrators.

If local taxpayers are footing the full bill for administrators, they will be fully motivated to find the right balance between efficiencies of size and local involvement and control. Different localities can decide differently and it won’t affect the rest of us one way or the other.

I am not suggesting that we reduce the total state funding of public schools.

The voters decided upon 55 percent and I think they got it right. So while we move administrative costs out, we would pick up a larger share of some other cost. In my new book, “Setting the Maine Course,” I advocate a new, understandable funding formula for Maine schools where the state would pay no administrative costs but would pick up the full cost of teachers.

The teachers would still be hired by the local district, but the costs would be borne by the state according to a state wide contract. At the same time, we could work with teachers to find an acceptable way to provide bonus pay to those performing above standard.

This would accomplish the two most important goals of the Select Panel of the State Board of Education and move us toward having the best public schools in America: a lot to gain simply by turning away from a debate which could keep us stuck in the mud for a decade.

Barbara Merrill of Appleton is an attorney and a state representative for District 44. She has recently published a book titled “Setting the Maine Course,” on public policy in Maine.