CONSOLIDATION WIND

The point of school consolidation legislation, which strongly won legislative support last year, was to reduce administrative expenses for both property tax relief and to direct more money toward instruction. That goal was muddied, if not lost, as lawmakers wrestled with a bill meant to remove hurdles to consolidation.

Gov. John Baldacci quickly vetoed LD 1932 when it reached his desk Monday after being approved by the House and Senate. The bill originally addressed concerns about cost sharing, minimum subsidies and mill rates but was weighed down with language allowing the creation of school unions. With the governor’s disapproval, lawmakers should return to their intent of making the easy, needed fixes that will enable districts to move ahead with their consolidation work. A bill submitted by Gov. Baldacci, essentially a return to LD 1932 without the school union amendment, would do this.

Because of the uncertainly surrounding LD 1932, some school districts have slowed or delayed work on cooperating with other districts.

“Our plans call for a referendum on the June ballot,” wrote Beppie Cerf, the chair of the regional planning committee for Falmouth, Cumberland and North Yarmouth, the only group to have already received approval from the Department of Education for the consolidation plan. “But seeing no support from Augusta, the wind has left our sails. We need wind.” The committee is considering delaying a vote until November, but even that hinges on being able to craft an acceptable cost-sharing agreement, something that would have been allowed under LD 1932, which the letter noted is now “riddled with amendments completely gutting the original intent of consolidation.”

Beyond taking the wind out of districts’ sails, the version of LD 1932 passed by the House and Senate would have blown consolidation backwards by allowing school-union type governance. This system, where many towns share a superintendent but have separate school boards, is the type of inefficiency and duplication the law was meant to reduce.

Maine has one of the most expensive school systems per pupil in the nation, with an inordinate amount going to district level administration. There is broad agreement that this is not sustainable.

Rather than escalate and draw out the debate on consolidation with an effort to repeal the law looming, a third option, which makes consolidation more palatable as well as more feasible, could be welcome.

A proposal from Sen. Richard Rosen, the Senate assistant minority leader, offers the framework for such a compromise. By combining the financial fixes from LD 1932 with aspects of another bill, LD 2280, which address concerns about the required budget validation process, this proposal retains the focus on making consolidation easier. Whether its provisions to make consolidation voluntary, with incentives rather than penalties, will let districts maintain the costly status quo should be carefully considered by lawmakers.

They have a short time to improve, not gut, the consolidation law.