Baldacci’s school plan necessary

Gov. John Baldacci may be too liberal for some voters in Maine and too conservative for others. He follows in the great tradition of Maine elected officials such as Democratic Sens. George Mitchell and Ed Muskie, Republican Sens. Margaret Chase Smith and Susan Collins, and independent Gov. Angus King. Gov. Baldacci tries to do what is best – long term – for the state of Maine.

Gov. Baldacci cares about people, and that is evidenced by his unwavering support for MaineCare and Dirigo Health and in his ongoing effort to provide health insurance coverage to as many Mainers as possible.

His recent efforts to lower the administrative costs of education should be applauded and supported. We now live in an age of lightning-fast communication.

When I first started in the hotel business 26 years ago, we didn’t have a copy machine or a fax machine. We used carbon paper and had to bear down really hard if we wanted to make more than one copy. We used Wite-Out and typewriters. It was cumbersome and slow to write a letter. Today we have computers, word processing and accounting programs, e-mail, cell phones, texting, voice mail, faxes, instant messaging and copiers that can copy both sides of a page and make hundreds of copies in a few minutes.

Twenty years ago, every one of our hotels had a general manager. Today I have many managers who manage two or more hotel properties. Some of those hotels are two hours apart. But as we have consolidated, our problems have decreased and our hotels are better managed because we now have our best managers managing more than one hotel. Similar economies have been found in administration at our hotels where in some cases we have one bookkeeper responsible for five or six hotels.

The consolidation of administration for school districts, proposed by Gov. Baldacci, is similar to what we have done in our hotels, and it will save Maine people millions of dollars in the future. Maine cannot afford the education infrastructure that we have in place – it siphons too much money away from the classroom and into administration. We must use technology to communicate, to make education more efficient and to help reduce the huge amount of money we spend on education. Technology allows us to be more efficient, and we would be foolish not to use it.

With the reorganization process, the number of jobs will be reduced but the best superintendents and administrators will keep their jobs and use their expertise to make our school systems exceptional. The best people will provide the best education possible for our kids. Reorganized school districts being administered by one superintendent, instead of several, will share staff and resources; high schools located just a few miles apart can begin to share teachers who teach “specialties” such as Spanish or German. It is a lot easier for a teacher to drive five or six miles than to move a busload of students.

I am a strong supporter of education and I feel that Maine schools provide an excellent education. My grandfather, mother and sister have all taught school in Maine. One of my sons attended the University of Maine. I have a son attending Harvard and a daughter at Cornell. I appreciate the value and need for excellent education. That’s why I support the governor’s plan.

I know that the economy, both nationally and in Maine, is slowing down and that the state faces a budget shortfall. I admire Gov. Baldacci for having the courage to balance the budget and for forcing us to live within our means. He is trying to ensure that the state’s bills get paid, but also has the guts to provide bonding for education and the university system, research and development, roads and Land for Maine’s Future all are important investments in our infrastructure with a high return on investment.

Doing the right thing is not always popular or easy. For instance, Sen. George Mitchell had a tough job reporting on drug use in Major League Baseball recently. A few years ago, he faced the daunting task of crafting a peace agreement in Ireland. But Sen. Mitchell had the best long-term interest of the Irish and of Major League Baseball in mind.

Gov. Baldacci is in a similar situation. We need to support the governor’s efforts in school administrative reorganization and in his work to balance Maine’s budget because he always has Maine’s long-term interests at heart.

Danny Lafayette and his wife live in Hampden and are majority shareholders in 24 hotels, 20 of which are located in Maine. His company employs about 1,000 people.