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.