Letter: Protect our schools or we'll find new ones (Printed Feb. 9, 2007)
Posted by Sentry Editor at 2/19/2007 10:43 AM 
Categories: State News, Letters to the editor, Cape schools, Consolidation, Augusta News, Budget
Categories: State News, Letters to the editor, Cape schools, Consolidation, Augusta News, Budget
[The following is a letter sent to Rep. Jane Eberle D-South Portland/ Cape Elizabeth]
Dear Representative Eberle:
We are writing to express our opposition to Governor Baldacci’s LSRS plan. After studying the Governor’s proposal we are baffled by his willingness to settle for mediocrity in our state’s schools, his willingness to sacrifice Maine’s and our children’s future on the TABOR altar.
As stated by Governor Baldacci on January 26th at the public forum at Deering High School in Portland, the Cape Elizabeth School system is the “model that is working.” According to your colleague Cynthia Dill, Maine State representative and Cape Elizabeth Town Council member, Cape Elizabeth “should be used as the model from which the state could work, given our low administrative costs per student, the collaboration with our municipal services, and most importantly our consistent excellent academic achievements,” [according to published reports] Specifically, these achievements include the highest overall SAT scores in Maine and being named one of the top 1,000 U.S. high schools in the country by Newsweek Magazine for 2006. And yet, Governor Baldacci’s proposed plan would dismantle our local model leaving our town with no benefits and almost complete loss of local control. Under the new model, Cape Elizabeth would have approximately a nine percent vote in determining what happens to our local schools and the quality of education we provide our youngest citizens.
Governor Baldacci argues that his proposal will save taxpayers money. This argument is flawed for two reasons. First, according to [quotations attributed to] Rebecca Millet, Cape Elizabeth School Board Member, “In Cape Elizabeth, we spend less per pupil than nearly all of the other districts that have been grouped together,” she said. “If we pay less than other districts, will Cape Elizabeth taxpayers be saved money or will we actually be raising how much we pay for education as a community? I suspect that we are going to be paying more.” Second, according to [quotations arributed to] Cape Elizabeth Town Manager, Mike McGovern, the governor’s proposal “would have the regional district take all of our current assets …it appears that this might include the municipal pool, the town fitness center, the Thomas Memorial Library, the Town Center fire station and police station.” Despite the loss of these assets under the Governor’s plan Cape Elizabeth would still be responsible for the debt.
We fail to see how this arrangement would be a good thing for local tax-payers.
We support Governor Baldacci’s efforts to find much needed efficiencies in state government and the subsequent cost savings. We also fully support his purported effort to improve the quality of education in Maine.
We recognize the immensity of these tasks and commend his efforts, as evidenced by his detailed and extensive plan. However, there is little data to support that fewer, larger districts can produce better results at a lower cost. On the contrary, “The Report Card on American Education: A State By-State Analysis,” found that states which average fewer schools per district tend to score higher on the SAT, ACT and NAEP tests [according to published reports]. We simply are not willing to “consolidate” at the expense of any student’s education, including those students that are performing at the highest level.
We cast votes for both Governor Baldacci and you. We are beginning to regret the former. We know we will not regret the latter because you will not support his current plan and allow Cape Elizabeth’s excellence to be traded for mediocrity and proposed tax savings. If this plan should pass, we would not rule out voting with our feet. We are highly mobile professionals who chose to bring our education and skills to Maine from another state with renowned public education.
We felt comfortable with this choice in large part because we found—after much research—a public school district in Maine that compared with the best from other states. If the Governor’s proposal is victorious, we expect this would no longer be the case.
As a result, while we love Maine, we may find ourselves joining a predictably large exodus of intellectual capital (and tax revenue) from a state that can ill afford it.
Sincerely,
Sarah Lyons Price
Daniel Price, M.D.
Cape Elizabeth
Dear Representative Eberle:
We are writing to express our opposition to Governor Baldacci’s LSRS plan. After studying the Governor’s proposal we are baffled by his willingness to settle for mediocrity in our state’s schools, his willingness to sacrifice Maine’s and our children’s future on the TABOR altar.
As stated by Governor Baldacci on January 26th at the public forum at Deering High School in Portland, the Cape Elizabeth School system is the “model that is working.” According to your colleague Cynthia Dill, Maine State representative and Cape Elizabeth Town Council member, Cape Elizabeth “should be used as the model from which the state could work, given our low administrative costs per student, the collaboration with our municipal services, and most importantly our consistent excellent academic achievements,” [according to published reports] Specifically, these achievements include the highest overall SAT scores in Maine and being named one of the top 1,000 U.S. high schools in the country by Newsweek Magazine for 2006. And yet, Governor Baldacci’s proposed plan would dismantle our local model leaving our town with no benefits and almost complete loss of local control. Under the new model, Cape Elizabeth would have approximately a nine percent vote in determining what happens to our local schools and the quality of education we provide our youngest citizens.
Governor Baldacci argues that his proposal will save taxpayers money. This argument is flawed for two reasons. First, according to [quotations attributed to] Rebecca Millet, Cape Elizabeth School Board Member, “In Cape Elizabeth, we spend less per pupil than nearly all of the other districts that have been grouped together,” she said. “If we pay less than other districts, will Cape Elizabeth taxpayers be saved money or will we actually be raising how much we pay for education as a community? I suspect that we are going to be paying more.” Second, according to [quotations arributed to] Cape Elizabeth Town Manager, Mike McGovern, the governor’s proposal “would have the regional district take all of our current assets …it appears that this might include the municipal pool, the town fitness center, the Thomas Memorial Library, the Town Center fire station and police station.” Despite the loss of these assets under the Governor’s plan Cape Elizabeth would still be responsible for the debt.
We fail to see how this arrangement would be a good thing for local tax-payers.
We support Governor Baldacci’s efforts to find much needed efficiencies in state government and the subsequent cost savings. We also fully support his purported effort to improve the quality of education in Maine.
We recognize the immensity of these tasks and commend his efforts, as evidenced by his detailed and extensive plan. However, there is little data to support that fewer, larger districts can produce better results at a lower cost. On the contrary, “The Report Card on American Education: A State By-State Analysis,” found that states which average fewer schools per district tend to score higher on the SAT, ACT and NAEP tests [according to published reports]. We simply are not willing to “consolidate” at the expense of any student’s education, including those students that are performing at the highest level.
We cast votes for both Governor Baldacci and you. We are beginning to regret the former. We know we will not regret the latter because you will not support his current plan and allow Cape Elizabeth’s excellence to be traded for mediocrity and proposed tax savings. If this plan should pass, we would not rule out voting with our feet. We are highly mobile professionals who chose to bring our education and skills to Maine from another state with renowned public education.
We felt comfortable with this choice in large part because we found—after much research—a public school district in Maine that compared with the best from other states. If the Governor’s proposal is victorious, we expect this would no longer be the case.
As a result, while we love Maine, we may find ourselves joining a predictably large exodus of intellectual capital (and tax revenue) from a state that can ill afford it.
Sincerely,
Sarah Lyons Price
Daniel Price, M.D.
Cape Elizabeth
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