Speaking to elected officials and administrators about Gov. John
Baldacci's “Local Schools/ Regional Support” plan to consolidate 126
school administrative offices into 26 regional offices, two major
themes consistently come up. 1. The details of the plan have not been
adequately disseminated and 2. What has been shared reveals a plan with
many flaws.

    “We can do better,” a phrase that is being used to
help sell the plan, is exactly how many people feel about the proposal
and it's recommendations.

    There is little doubt that the state needs to do
something to make education spending more efficient. Too much money
goes to duplicated services and redundant responsibilities, while
students fail to meet standards and consider post high school education
at alarming rates.

    The media blitz this week by the State Dept. of
Education was thick with testimonials about the need for something to
be done, but there is an emerging sense that doing something was more
important than doing it right.

    But as it stands the plan is just a proposal
contained in a larger budget request. It will be up to the legislature
to dig through that plan; to ask questions and to get answers.

    A first step will be to create more equitably
populated school districts. The demographics and geography of Maine's
regions are vastly different. And if present trends continue, the large
southern Districts will only grow larger as those in the north lose
more and more of their population.

    But that is only one of innumerable concerns about this plan.

    School regionalization can work. But not like this.

–Ward Peck