School unions work

The Feb. 5 editorial “District Designs” begs a very basic question: When, if ever, will the BDN editorial staff find a way to make accurate statements about school unions in Maine?

Specifically, the comment the “amendment to allow the continuation of school union-type governance is expected. This unnecessarily perpetuates an inefficient form of school district management that would duplicate and complicate the work of the regional school units required by law,” ruffles my union feathers.

For the umpteenth time from the Maine Department of Education, state legislators and the BDN, school unions are labeled as inefficient. I defy any of the aforementioned groups, using real data, to make a case that school unions are any less efficient than school administrative districts, community school districts or municipal school districts.

The 30-plus school unions in Maine have been maligned and unfairly labeled for more than a year now. Not once has a detailed study been done that does a direct comparison-contrast of the varied school system structures in Maine. Furthermore, my experiences at the state, regional and local levels has clearly shown me there is vast ignorance of what a school union is and how it functions. A case in point is the 13-member legislative committee for education and cultural affairs.

Efficiency is a word tossed around flippantly by many. To this day, I have no definitive “efficiency model” from the Department of Education or the Legislature. My guess is it would take at least another year for members of the Legislature, Department of Education staff and, heaven forbid, input from superintendents to come to agreement on specific criteria to establish that a district is efficient or inefficient. That effort certainly has not been made to date.

John Hedman

Superintendent of Schools, Union 122

Woodland