[Local-Maine-Schools] Article by Derek Viger of the Augusta Insider

[Dick Atlee]

Skip Greenlaw has sent around this article on consolidation repeal with 
the permission of the author (Derek Viger, maineview at gmail.com), 
characterizing it as "the best article I have read about the rationale 
for repeal."  The original is at  the Augusta Insider site at

      http://augustainsider.us/repealschoolconsolidationnow/

Brian has it linked on his amazing http://mdischools.net site in the 
October 7 list of articles.  The (nonfunctioning) link in the attached 
PDF version of the article to former teacher/ed-consultant and now House 
Majority Whip Seth Barry's statement on this issue is to

      http://augustainsider.us/hberryonschoolconsolidation/

The general points in one or the other of these pieces (if I understand 
them correctly) are that

   (a) while consolidation is a desirable goal in some cases, the
       legislation that was passed was dysfunctional in terms of
       saving money,
   (b) the majority of consolidation "successes" actually reflect
       already-consolidated districts or exemptions,
   (c) more powerful districts have benefited or emerged unscathed
       while smaller, poorer districts are being hurt, and
   (d) any legislation that follows up a successful repeal should
       permit successful consolidation efforts to retain their
       structures in the form of SAD's.

One thing I don't understand are two maps, one in Derek Viger's online 
article, attributed to MDISchools.net, the other on the MDISchools.net 
site, portraying "Regional School Units" and "Distribution of State 
Subsidy".  Both have green and dark green townships making up almost all 
of the northern/eastern half of the state, colors which are not 
represented in the legends of the maps.  It might be useful in 
understanding those maps to have those colors added to the legends, or 
explained in accompanying text.

Dick Atlee
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