AUGUSTA – Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told a legislative committee Tuesday that she is withdrawing her request to change the student-teacher ratio as part of the administration’s school restructuring proposal.

The action means 650 teaching positions statewide will not be eliminated as originally planned.

“It became clear in meeting people throughout the state that they were concerned a cut in funding allocation for teaching would result in loss of art, Advanced Placement classes and other areas,” Gendron said in a prepared statement released Tuesday evening. “These are fundamental to well-rounded student learning and some are requirements of Maine’s Learning Results. It is not our intention to jeopardize those learning experiences.”

Gov. John Baldacci’s Local Schools, Regional Support Initiative, which calls for consolidating the state’s school districts to improve student achievement and realize administrative savings, originally called for adjusting the school funding formula to provide one teacher for every 17 students in middle and high school, as opposed to the current 16 to 1 and 15 to 1 ratios, respectively.

State savings from the change were projected at $25 million over two years, with local savings estimated at $20 million. The move would have resulted in funding for about 650 fewer teaching positions than now exist.

The LSRS initiative called for reinvesting the savings to expand the successful grades seven and eight laptop program to all four high school grades, and to create scholarships for high school graduates to attend college at the University of Maine, the Maine Community College System or Maine Maritime Academy.

Gendron said the department is seeking other ways to finance the laptops expansion and scholarship program.

“LSRS continues to be about improving academic excellence through a more efficient administrative structure,” Gendron said, “and seeking savings that will not impact classroom learning. In that context, we felt it best not to address student-teacher ratios at this time.