Baldacci plan will reduce school costs

Nearly a quarter of Maine’s students never even graduate from high school and only half of high school graduates go to college, so we know that – as good as Maine schools are – we can do better.

In fact, we can do better while spending less, and better directing our education tax dollars into classrooms.

Maine currently supports 152 district administrations and nearly twice that many districts. Some of these districts have no schools and no students. In short, too much administration is draining resources needed for the local-level school support to ensure that all students are ready for college, career and citizenship.

The Local Schools, Regional Support (LSRS) Initiative, proposed by Gov. John Baldacci, will redirect those resources to those who need them most: students, teachers, and communities.

LSRS will accomplish this by reducing Maine’s 152 district administrations to 26 regional centers, each of which will include one regional school board to support schools in several cities and towns. The newly created regional school boards will be governed by representatives from the communities they serve, and principals will be supported by local advisory councils including parents and community members, increasing local engagement and opportunity to influence the schools in their communities.

Every registered voter will have the opportunity to vote on the regional school budget. This system will ensure significantly greater local participation and engagement, guaranteeing every parent, teacher and community member a voice in how their schools are governed.

By streamlining purchasing, back office functions, curriculum coordination, transportation and other administrative duties into these 26 regional centers, Maine will save a quarter of a billion dollars in the first three years of administrative restructuring. No schools will close, and teachers will stay in the classroom with our children. And the money saved by LSRS will translate into benefits for students, educators and communities.

Some of the funds freed by the LSRS initiative will go towards roughly $2,000 scholarships to be offered to students to encourage college access. Students in need who attend a public post-secondary school in Maine will be eligible to receive one-half tuition reimbursement for two years at community college rates to be applied at Community Colleges, the University of Maine System or the Maine Maritime Academy. These scholarships will go to more than 15,000 students over the next four years.

Other funds from LSRS would be redirected into the highly successful program that provides laptops to students in grades 7 and 8. The Maine Learning Technology Initiative has already had a significantly positive impact on Maine’s students – LSRS will allow the program to be expanded to include grades 7 through 12, with 72,000 additional computers for grades 9 through 12. This expansion will be accompanied by professional development in technology leadership and instructional leadership for teachers and principals.

LSRS will also support schools and classrooms by providing funding for every school in the state to have a principal, if regional boards choose to use the money that way, to act as educational leader; 151 schools in Maine currently lack a full-time principal. And it provides professional development in instructional leadership practices through the creation of new Teacher Learning Communities, with $20 million invested in teacher development.

The LSRS Initiative is based on numerous reports and commissions involving key stakeholders and experts. The Brookings Institution, the Maine Children’s Alliance and the Maine State Board of Education have all issued reports recommending regional cooperation to reduce administrative expenditures. And the 26 Regional Centers are modeled after the geography of the existing career technical education regions, collaborations that were designed to be easily accessible geographically and whose success has been proven.

As a former teacher, I know first-hand how more resources in the classroom can unlock new possibilities for teaching and learning. As a former principal and a former superintendent, I understand the need for both local involvement and statewide support for schools.

Through the LSRS initiative, we can ensure academic excellence for every student in every classroom in every local school by redirecting our resources to students and teachers, and providing some much-needed tax relief in the process.

Susan Gendron is the Maine commissioner of education.