By Ward Peck

Editor

    More than 10 years after she left the Cape Elizabeth
School Department’s superintendent’s office, it’s difficult to describe
Connie Goldman as “retired.” During that time she has worked variously
as a consultant, state policy committee member, assistant professor,
interim superintendent and most recently, one term as Cape Elizabeth’s
representative to the state legislature where she served on the
Education Committee. Following November’s election in which she chose
not to seek re-election, she now finds herself on the sidelines of what
could be one of the most significant shifts in education policy: Gov.
John Baldacci’s proposed massive consolidation of school administration
and policy-making by creating 23 regional school districts out of a
hodgepodge of municipal school departments, and regional school
administrative districts.

    As the legislature’s Education Department nears
debate on at least five separate proposals on the degree and character
of regional consolidation, beginning with a public hearing on Feb. 5
followed by a series of work sessions, Goldman is listening carefully
and asking many questions. While she may question many parts of
Baldacci’s plan, she credits him with initiating a debate that needs to
happen. Any consolidation plan could have broad implications for the
state that go beyond how to maximize the efficiency of school
administration. How to balance Maine’s value of strong home rule (local
control) with the demand that the state do more to control taxes? How
does the state address the imbalance of resources and often-divergent
needs of the rural north and the more urbanized south?

    “No one fully understand the implications [of the
Governor’s consolidation plan], but this is a dialog that needs to
happen”, Goldman said. “What he has put forward may not be the plan
that happens but he was right to put it forward.”

    Goldman said she does not expect to see the Baldacci
plan come out of the legislative process intact. She noted there are
several competing bills as well as the ability of the Education
committee to create their own bill, but she expects some degree of
school reform to be passed.

    “It will come down to a yea or nay on some form of regionalization proposal,” Goldman said.

    Of the five plans, Goldman divides them into two
categories: one group of plans mandates or at least encourages regions
to come with their own consolidation plans.

    “Two of the bills don’t touch the governance
structure. They just mandate schools to consolidate,” she said. Many
people don’t see a lot of benefit but it’s possible it could yield real
insights into getting regionalization.”

    The other group all force a structural change in
school governance– eliminating school boards and superintendents, such
as Baldacci’s plan.

    Many critics of the Governor’s plan claim that they
were ambushed by the consolidation plan and it has not been properly
studied, to which the State’s education commissioner Susan Gendron has
said it has been the subject of exhaustive study and those studies are
consistent in their conclusion that Maine’s education funding is
inefficient.

    “She’s right, Goldman said. “Brookings report, the
Children’s Alliance Council Report, State Board of Ed report all point
to the fact that for 200,0000 students Maine has high per pupil
expenditures even as teacher salaries are below the national average.
We all know you can run a school district with fewer [administrative]
people– Portland has 7,000 to 8,000 students– the huge question is, how
do we do this?”

    Goldman said the issues are far larger than what
towns should be in which district and how much power a regional school
board should wield. It needs to be seen in the context of all the past
attempts to reform schools– both the quality of education and the
question of who pays to ensure all Maine students have the opportunity
to benefit from a quality education.

    And in Maine, the question of who pays almost always boils down to a contest between north and south.

    “From the legislative point of view, bills have in the past focused on funding,” Goldman said.

    The thrust of legislation has been guided by this push-pull with money between the south and the north.

    “Maine is largely a rural state, outside of southern
Maine, the Bangor area and some other small pockets. About 1/3 of high
schools have fewer than 300 students; some have 150. It’s hard to
attract focused, qualified teachers at this level,” she said.

    Goldman said the Sinclair Act of 1957 was Maine’s
last serious attempt at school reform and lead to the creation of
regional high schools. But even with the regional high schools there
are still a lot of small schools in the state. But many northern
legislators are against significant reform, arguing that closing small
schools will destroy the character of their communities.

    As classes get smaller, staffing those schools
becomes less efficient. The costs go up which cannot be supported by
the relatively low value of property taxes.

    The need to provide an equalized education system
and the lack of local money needed to maintain adequate schools means
the more tax money moving from south to north.

    “How do we get funding to this scattered system
equalized, based on valuation?” Goldman asked. “The answer has been to
pump as much money as possible to poor, rural areas, but that state
money is coming from sales and income tax from the south and
communities in the south have to make up for less state aid with local
property tax.”

    The arrangement, Goldman said, leaves all sides
dissatisfied. No one believes the state is doing enough to help their
local schools.

    “There is not much sympathy for Cape Elizabeth in
the north,” she said. “They say ‘you have the property base, you have
the money.’ But they cannot ignore the considerations of people in
southern Maine.”

    Goldman said she tried to persuade her fellow
legislators to see the issue of funding rural schools as an economic
issue rather than an education funding issue.

    “Part of the issue is keeping these schools open.
Isn’t that more of an economic issue? Shouldn’t we be looking at
addressing the fact that parents don’t have jobs and have to move away?”

    Another issue the state has grappled with is the
state of education itself. Relatively few high school students go on to
earn post-graduate degrees and many schools show sizable proportions of
students that do not meet set standards. So, the question is not only
how to save money, but also how to improve education.

    “Several years ago, Maine joined the national push
for standards. This new development is speaking to a broader question–
what is the education demanded by the information age?” Goldman said.
“Today, jobs we would consider blue collar require a higher level of
education than used to be the case. Studies show that the reading
difficulty of technical manuals rates higher than college textbooks.
These trends show we can’t be satisfied turning out kids who only know
Mickey Mouse math– you need algebra. We need standards for all our
kids, not just a select few. The local accountability piece hasn’t
worked itself out yet– Maine still has no statewide exit exam.”

    This new discussion is taking place with all these
other things in the background– the north/south push-pull of funding
formulas, the call for statewide standards, the need to improve the
quality and relevance of education.

    One way is to regionalize, but how and how do you
assure we don’t end up in a muddle like what happened when they
overhauled the Department of Human Services?” Goldman asked.

    The answer to that question remains to be seen, but
Connie Goldman will be there listening to the debate and asking
questions.