Education: July 2007 Archives

Milton Friedman, who developed the idea for school vouchers and who would have turned 95 on Tuesday, would be disappointed with the following news story from the Washington Times, which reports that Congressional Democrats intend to take aim at the highly successful school voucher program in the District of Columbia. More money needs to go to DC schools, not vouchers, they say, despite the fact that DC spends more per pupil than any state in the nation and probably has the worst schools in America.

Future of D.C. school vouchers worries parents

But now many families are beginning to worry that the change of power in Congress means the end of the scholarship program, and some parents say they're willing to fight to keep that from happening.

Read the full article here.

The Ellsworth American, just about the only newspaper in the state interested in smaller government, had this to say in an editorial today on the University of Maine system:

"There are legitimate arguments to be made about the need for Maine salaries to be competitive when seeking to attract the best and the brightest to essential positions. But the newly released list of state positions and salaries that pay more than twice the state average also calls into question whether all of those high-paying posts are essential to the efficient functioning of Maine’s various government agencies and institutions.

The University of Maine System is a case in point. Three years ago, the system was predicting an $85 million shortfall in its own budget by 2008. There was general consensus that business as usual no longer could be sustained. But proposals for major restructuring went nowhere and now we are three years further down the road.

The time has come for a full-blown restructuring of the UMS to achieve the same goals ascribed to the Governor’s hastily-drawn reorganization plan for Maine’s elementary and secondary school systems."

Read the entire editorial here.

According to the Lincoln County News, many small schools and small school districts are coming to realize that the ultimate result of school district consolidation will indeed be the closure of small schools. From the article:

“I haven’t come to tell you what you want to hear,� said Senator Dana Dow (R-Waldoboro) to the SAD 40 board of directors on Thursday night. “I’ve come to tell you what you need to hear.�

As bureaucrats in Augusta push for consolidation of schools and services, districts such as SAD 40 are scrambling to bring budgets in line with a state funding formula that appears to be operating more as a cost efficiency measure than a mechanism to ensure quality of education.

Despite claims that the Essential Programs and Services school funding formula is about quality of education said Dow, the discussion in Augusta was only about one thing: money.

The problem is that money is being taken away from schools, said Dow, before the efficiencies of consolidation have become a reality.

With state budget shortfalls close to half a billion dollars, Governor John Baldacci announced earlier this year his plan for consolidated “Super Districts� around the state.

“The state can’t close a school,� said Dow. “But they’re going to take so much money away from you that you won’t have much choice.�

No doubt folks in small towns all over the state are coming to the same conclusion.

Read the full article here.

The most recent issue of Education Next, a publication of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, features an extensive interview with former Florida governor Jeb Bush, soon to be visiting us at the Freedom and Opportunity Luncheon.

The first two paragraphs alone give you a sense of the extent of his achievements as governor in the education arena:

"Governors from New York to California aspire to be known as the “education governor.� Few hold better claim to the title than Florida governor Jeb Bush, who left office in January after two action-packed terms.

During his eight years in Tallahassee, the governor established a far-reaching accountability system, including limits on social promotion in elementary school; introduced a plethora of school choice initiatives (vouchers for the disabled, vouchers for those in failing schools, tax-credit funded scholarships for the needy, virtual education, and a growing number of charter schools); asked school districts to pay teachers according to merit; promoted a “Just Read� initiative; ensured parental choice among providers of preschool services; and created a highly regarded system for tracking student achievement."

Read the entire article here to get some sense of what is possible with the right leadership in the Governor's mansion.

See what happens when some actual reporting is done by one of the state's newspapers?

An article in Saturday's Bangor Daily contained a fascinating list of the hundreds of state employees who make a higher salary than the governor. Nine of the ten highest paid state employees, the article revealed, work for the University of Maine system, including "former University of Maine System Chancellor Joseph Westphal" who is "now a full-time professor earning $208,382 a year." Your tuition dollars at work!

Today's BDN reports that the salary list has prompted calls in Augusta for, what else, a study of some kind to be done by the Governor or the Legislature. My experience tells me to beware of such a study. They usually find that public employees in Maine, like the rest of us, are paid less than peers elsewhere. Proposed solution? Raise salaries!

By the way, today's article ends with a line that tells you all you need to know about how folks in Augusta think jobs get created:

"Another group, yet to be appointed by Edmonds and House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, is the Prosperity Committee that is supposed to find savings in state spending that can be used to invest in programs aimed at increasing jobs in the private sector."

See? If we only spent more tax dollars on more state programs "aimed at creating jobs" we'd be all set!