To: Ron Bancroft

Re: 1/22 Sunday Telegram op-ed: Mend, don't end, school consolidation process

Date: January 27. 2008

Ron,

Thank you very much for that summary of reports on school reform and I appreciate your background and interest in school matters, along with other business leaders in the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education.

I also have read those reports you cite and, in fact, have some considerable sympathy and agreement with their recommendations, for example:

* Create an efficient educational system—one with a more streamlined structure but still allowing for local voice and connection;
--The Learning State, Maine State Board of Education, September 2006.

* Fully fund and enlarge the Fund for the Efficient Delivery of Education Services to promote voluntary collaborations between schools and districts to reduce K–12 costs
--Charting Maine's Future, Brookings Institution for GrowSmart Maine, October 2006.

* Enact Legislation that authorizes cooperation on a local and regional basis.
--A Case for Cooperation, Maine Children's Alliance, August 30, 2006.

Each of these goals is specifically achievable under the Regional School Union model that is being debated within the legislature and which we on MDI currently support.

I also listened intently to David Silvernail's presentation on January 8 to the Education Committee and what Dr Silvernail reported was that the full range of per-pupil costs are represented across all varieties of Maine's school governance structures and higher costs are not peculiar to school unions.

It simply cannot be claimed that there is a causal relationship between educational cost-efficiency and educational governance model or that school unions are inherently inefficient as you wrote in your op-ed. In fact, Dr. Silvernail reported that the single most consistent correlation to per-pupil expense is municipal valuation. Simply put, wealthy towns consistently spend more than poorer towns, regardless of school governance model.

Clearly, educational spending results from local policy decisions. The Commissioner said as much at the same January 8 Education Committee work session. The question is how best and most efficiently to match regional policy goals to resources. The optimal solution to this is likely to be different in different regions with different local resources and different constraints. Every study you cited acknowledges this also.

No one opposes increasing efficiency. But, in imposing uniform models of governance without consideration of local consequence, there is a real danger not only that the improved efficiency is imaginary but also that presently successful educational outcomes are truly damaged.

Our goals are the same: coherent excellence in education achieved through regional cooperation and the efficient sharing of resources. If more areas can reach realize efficiency by adopting different regional governance models that better suit their needs, then we all benefit.

So, let's work together cooperatively to come up with solutions that are practical and not based upon ideological preconceptions of either flavor.

Best wishes,
Brian Hubbell,
Bar Harbor School Committee and MDI RPC Vice-chair