Education: July 2008 Archives

It was more than fifty years ago that the late Dr. Milton Friedman first proposed expanding school choice options through the use of taxpayer-funded school "vouchers." Arguing that government-run schools, which he characterized as "islands of socialism in a free-market sea," could not be justified in a predominantly free market society, Friedman proposed funding students directly and allowing the free market to create for the nation the high quality schools it needed then and still needs still today.

Today, on what would have been his 96th birthday, the foundation which bears his name, The Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation, is sponsoring events across the nation celebrating his memory. The Maine Heritage Policy Center is hosting such an event today in Portland.

Raising awareness of Friedman's free-market vision for America's schools could not be more timely. As the Wall Street Journal noted earlier this week, this coming election pits a supporter of school choice, Senator John McCain, against an avowed opponent of school vouchers, Senator Barack Obama.  Senator Obama and his wife, it is important to note, practice school choice themselves. Their two daughters attend a $20,000-a-year private school at the University of Chicago.  To Senator Obama's way of thinking, it would seem, school choice is fine if you can afford it, but he seems perfectly comfortable forcing his less fortunate Chicago neighbors into the very public schools his own children never set foot in.

It is hard to know whether school choice will become an issue this election season or not, but if it does, the memory of Milton Friedman, recognized across the nation today, will be well served.

Voters in Monmouth, Sabattus, Lamoine, Lubec and Cape Elizabeth have yet to approve school budgets for the coming year, despite several trips to the ballot box by voters in all five towns.  To the Lewiston Sun Journal's way of thinking, these exercises in direct democracy have become too messy and time-consuming.  Positions have "cemented," according to the paper, with "stalemate" as the result.  The paper goes on to suggest that the legislature rescue voters from their difference of opinion by developing some type of "budget mediation" process that "prompts discussion of a mutually acceptable solution," and lets "cooler heads prevail."  The paper is light on the details of this approach, most notably with regard to whether the decision of some as-yet undefined but presumably cooler-headed mediating body would have the force of law and thus replace a vote of the public. If so, count us out.

Democracy is messy. It takes too much time and does indeed lead to a "cementing of positions among townspeople." But it also works. The towns in question will ultimately come to a consensus on their budgets, because they have no other choice. When they do, they, and the rest of Maine, will be better off for having taken the time to do it right.

The repeated failure of school budgets in a handful of towns across Maine is a cause for celebration, not concern.  It means that people are involved, that they are invested in their schools and communities, and that they are committed to making their voices heard. This is a good thing, and one of the main reasons the budget validation process was adopted in the first place.

A quick look at the Department of Education's reorganization plan website would have the casual observer thinking the school unit consolidation effort is going swimmingly.  All down the list of merger proposals one sees that the Department has added a bright red "APPROVED" to indicate the proposals have won the blessing of Education Commissioner Sue Gendron.  Looks like things are going well.

As Vicki Wallack helpfully observed in a recent column, however, the vast majority of the "APPROVED" proposals are so-called "alternative" plans, submitted by districts that are big enough already that they need not consolidate with a neighboring district at all.  Only two proposals involving actual consolidation have been approved by voters thus far: a Bath-area proposal that predated reorganization and a merger plan for five districts in lower Kennebec County.

But what of the Falmouth/SAD 51 merger plan that the state has been holding up as a model for others to follow?  It turns out the Falmouth has been thinking twice about the idea of consolidation.  According to a report in the Forecaster, representatives from Falmouth went on bended knee before Commissioner Gendron last week to see if they could back out of the merger plan and adopt an alternative approach instead.  Unsurprisingly, the Commissioner said no.

One of the only other APPROVED merger plans, between MSAD 53 and MSAD 59, was defeated by Madison voters June 10, sending planners there back to the drawing board.

One of the other merger plans near completion is the Freeport/Durham/Pownal consolidation proposal, which, though only finalized days ago, has already led to the organization of an opposition group called "Freeport Families for Education."  Among that group's concern are the cost-sharing provisions of the plan and the potential overcrowding of Freeport High School that is likely to result from the addition of hundreds of kids from Durham and  Pownal.  High schoolers in those two towns have school choice today, but very few choose to attend Freeport. If the merger plan is approved, they won't have a choice.

So, two consolidation plans approved by voters thus far, one voted down, the one held up as a model for Maine getting cold feet and trying to back out, and yet another inspiring an organized opposition group.  Not a great track record so far...
 

The Bangor Daily News reported yesterday that Maine has dropped 6 places, from being ranked 33rd nationally to now being 39th on the Milken Institute's State Science and Technology Index.  The index is designed to indicate the extent to which a state possesses the human, intellectual, and capital resources required for entrepreneurship and jobs in the modern technology-driven economy. 

In short, we're not looking so good.

In particular, Maine scored very poorly with regard to its production of scientists and engineers:

• We ranked 50th in the percent of Graduate students in Science and Engineering
• We ranked 50th in number of PhD's in Science and Engineering per 100,000 25-34 year-olds
• We ranked 50th in the number of Science and Engineering Post-doctorates per 100-000 25-34 year-olds

These statistics in turn have an impact on the index's work force indicators, which measure the number of engineers, scientists, computer programmers, and so forth per 100,000 civilian workers.  We ranked 44th in the nation on that set of indicators.

That, in turn, affects our ability to attract R&D investment from outside the state, from both the private and public (government) sectors. We're 50th in R&D dollars per capita.

Think about what that means. Places like Louisiana, the Dakotas, Mississippi, and West Virginia are doing a better job attracting high tech investment than we are.

By the way, our two closest neighbors, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, are ranked 1st and 9th, respectively. From 2004 to 2008, New Hampshire went up four spots from 12th to 9th while we went down six spots from 33rd to 39th.

Do our leaders get it? Nope. My favorite line from the BDN article:

The governor was upbeat about the latest results, however.  "This reflects that we are doing what we need to do," he said...

It does?

By the way,  Forbes magazine will soon release its ranking of business-friendly states. We were 48th last year.

Though it seems to have escaped the attention of most newspapers, the Forecaster reports here that Bath-area RSU 1 takes effect today as the state's first "reorganized" school district.  This means the end of the Bath municipal school system as well as School Union 47, which, until today, included Arrowsic, Georgetown, Phippsburg, West Bath and Woolwich.  Georgetown residents voted against joining the RSU 1, but the four other towns of School Union 47 approved joining the new district last November.

The effects of this change cannot be predicted, of course, but one thing that is known is that joining RSU 1 effectively ended school choice for the four former Union 47 towns.  About 50 high school students in those towns chose to attend a school other than Morse High School in Bath, but that choice will no longer exist for families in those towns.  Chalk up one more win for big government and the public school establishment.

Despite the lack of reporting about it, the launching of RSU 1 is an important milestone in the history of Maine schools.  The state begins today an experiment in larger regional school districts, one that will spread statewide as consolidation efforts continue. The loss of school choice is one known result of these efforts, but the other outcomes are largely unknown.  For years now, Maine has tried reform after reform - Learning Results, local assessment, Essential Programs and Services, LD 1, Laptops - and we have yet to see any meaningful gain in student achievement. Will consolidation be any different?

Time will tell...