ORONO (AP) – A law designed to reduce spending by consolidating Maine schools has resulted in many schools spending more, a University of Maine professor said.

The Sinclair Act, which was passed in 1957 and changed Maine’s educational landscape by encouraging towns to form administrative districts and close tiny high schools, has resulted in an increase in per-pupil expenditures, said Gordon Donaldson, a professor of educational leadership at the University of Maine.

“The Sinclair Act may have worked in some ways, but we don’t know what those are,” Donaldson told the Small Maine High School Coalition on Friday. “We do know it raised costs and reduced community and parental involvement. And there’s no evidence it increased quality.”

Statistics compiled by University of Maine graduate students studying the history of education show that both the number of administrators and the average per-pupil expenditures have increased 20 years after the act became law in 1957.

The year-old coalition is concerned about the potential demise of small schools, which members argue are vital to students, faculties and community.

State Board of Education chairwoman Jean Gulliver said she wasn’t familiar with the data and that consolidation may not be the answer for everyone.

“Each community should analyze its enrollment and tax revenue projections, as well as its cost of doing business, and should decide for itself how best to provide a quality education,” she said.

After the act was passed, the number of school districts in Maine grew from 139 in 1961 to 178 in 1980 and the number of superintendents rose more than 17 percent from 119 to 140, Donaldson said.

The state closed many small schools and poured money into building large, modern buildings. Larger administrative districts also required more money.

Donaldson said the rationale for the Sinclair Act was similar to reasons the state Board of Education has used to encourage school consolidation and regionalization.

“The argument is that we want consolidation to save on administrative costs, but that’s not what happened after the state’s huge investment in consolidation,” he said.

Donaldson said the inflation-adjusted average per pupil cost rose almost 90 percent, from $934 to $1,767, between 1940 and 1960 adjusted for inflation. By 1980, per pupil spending more than doubled to $3,908.

“There’s no way of telling what education costs would have looked like without the law,” Donaldson said. “We can say that the rate of expenditures per pupil increased a lot faster than it had been.”

Before the law, schools had no real business offices and there were no such positions as assistant superintendents, he said.

“We ended up reinvesting in a new level of middle administrators,” Donaldson said.

AP-ES-04-12-04 1048EDT