[Local-Maine-Schools] Dick Gould: Democrat caucus

[Dick Atlee]

Dick has included a nice two-page comment by Rep. Farrington on unions. 
  I've omitted the other attachment, the DOE statement against Unions, 
since we have a link to that regrettable attempt at deception on our 
mdischools.net page:

     http://www.maine.gov/education/supportingschools/unions.html

(a pretty nasty attempt at deception).

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Democrat caucus
Date: 	Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:18:20 -0500
From: 	RICHARD GOULD <perf3170rag at verizon.net>

Hi
Last night I attended the Democrat caucus.  The major topic was school
consolidation, especially the Damon amendment to LD1932..  Two opposing
points of view were presented and discussed.  Rep Norton presented the
DOE's position.  Rep. Farrington presented his own position.

I am inserting both positions for you to look over to make your own
evaluations.  The one entitled "School Unions..." is by the DOE.  The
one entitled "Q & A on LD1932...' is by Rep. Farrington.

My take on the caucus is that the Ds likely favor the Damon amendment.
It appears that leadership is on board with it.  I also get the
impression that the Ds are listening to the voices back home and are
concerned about this fall.  So I urge you to continue to contact your
legislators NO Matter what your position is and let them know what you
think.

Below is a letter from Judith Jones that expresses how I feel about the
DOE's paper on Unions.  I really am concerned that a Department that
supposed to be a leader in this State on education would put out such
inaccurate and misleading analysis as this.  I have always believed that
education should be an honest search for the truth, not a tool for
propaganda.

3/5/08

Bangor Daily News

To the Editor:

The Maine Dept of Education’s (MDOE) most recent press release on
“School Unions, Efficiency and Performance,” is crammed so full of
numbers and assertions that it literally looks like the jumble that it
is.  Citizens and legislators might ask:

-  What is this “new data by Dr. David Silvernail”?
-  Have any of Dr. silvernail’s many reports to the MDOE been
published in peer-reviewed journals?
-  Who in the MDOE is asserting that different governance structures
“cause” different average education expenditures, using analyses based
on correlations among many inter-related factors?
-  Who in the MDOE is asserting that there are “no better test
results” in school unions compared with other forms of school district
governance,  using analyses based on correlations among many
inter-related factors?
-  Who in the MDOE will be held responsible for this shoddy staff work?

After all, misusing academic work to support preferred political
positions is nothing new.  Careful social social scientists always have
to be wary of this tendency of government departments and politicians.

The MDOE is putting at risk the credibility of Dr. Silvernail’s work.
   The MDOE is putting at risk its own credibility as protector of
high-quality publicly-funded education for Maine’s children.

Judith D. Jones, Ph.D.
Sociologist and education planner

199 Hatchet Mt Rd
Hope, ME 04847
763-3576
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