Problems Maine Does Not Need

 

 

     In a previous blog, I have written about New York's education system. In that post I discussed their regional school units which are led by superintendents who work part time for the local areas and part time for the state commissioner. Last year Maine's Blue Ribbon Commission studied ways to improve our schools and reviewed New York's regional system of education. During one of the Commission's meetings, a representative from New York responded to a question asked about the availability of effectiveness data. He said that the effectiveness of the NY regional system of governance had not been reviewed/tested. It appears all is not well with New York's statewide system of education. A group of parents has filed a complaint with the State Commissioner of Education against New York City alleging the city is not following the mandated class size law. In 2007 the DOE developed a class size reduction law pledging that class size for kindergarten through third grade shall not exceed 20 students; fourth through eighth grade classes shall not exceed 23 students; and high school core classes shall not exceed 25 students.  Rather than reducing class size, the DOE has allowed class size to increase since the 2007 law was enacted. The New York DOE data shows kindergarten through third grade class size has increased 18%; fourth through eighth grade class size has increase 6%; and high school class size increased 1.5%.  Many parents have shared their personal stories of their elementary school aged children in classes far above these maximum limits claiming their children's education has been negatively impacted.  Here is a link for more details: http://dianeravitch.net/.

     Where was the "local superintendent" during annual budget development? Surely class size, among other things, was discussed when determining the number of teachers needed each year to teach the total student population?.  Oh yeah, recall.....their superintendents work part time advocating for local needs and part time working for the state commissioner.  Mmmm.......

 

     So, as Maine has just completed a contentious state budget development process, let's remember that one sticking point that dragged the process out and caused a short state government shut down was the amount of funding for public education statewide. Not only did this cause the state government shutdown, but EVERY town/city in Maine faced the daunting task of building not only balanced school budgets, but also town/city budgets with little information regarding available state revenue for the coming year. Governor LePage and some Republicans had strongly advocated a pilot statewide teacher contract as an integral part of the budget. In New York one of the components of the regional system is a variation of a statewide teacher contract.  For Maine to open the door even a crack to a statewide teacher contract, would be opening the door to a regionalized system of governance and the kinds of problems that New York is facing. A regionalized system of governance for public education compared to Maine's historical local control/school board system concentrates the decision making and power further and further away from the classroom and closer and closer to political ideology.  Our toxic political climate destabilizes public education, the social institution that professes to build knowledge, skills, attitudes that are foundation for opportunity for a successful future and our democratic society.