This week’s “State of the State” show airing Saturday and Sunday mornings on Channel 9 of Adelphia cable TV will feature the report issued last week by the Maine Children’s Alliance.

It is titled “A Case for Cooperation: Making Connections to Improve Education for All Maine Students.”

Jack Rosser, chairman of the board of the Maine Children’s Alliance and former commissioner of mental health and corrections, and chairman of the Committee to Study Organizational and Tax Issues in Public Schools, presents the report’s recommendations that more efficient and effective K-12 education can be attained in Maine with more support for local school districts to expand their current efforts to work together.

Other guests are Jim Rier, director of finance and policy for the Maine Department of Education, and Terry Despres, superintendent of SAD 36 that serves Livermore and Livermore Falls.

Rier and Despres point out the many examples of school district cooperation already under way that are achieving better results for students and taxpayers. The Case for Cooperation report emphasizes the need for the state to facilitate and support such efforts.

The guests offer their views that the essential programs and services model of school funding adopted by the Legislature as part of LD 1 is an important first step. The referendum of June 2004 established a reserve of 2 percent of school funding to encourage local district cooperation to improve education and save money. Fully funding that reserve will be the centerpiece of legislation that the Maine Children’s Alliance will be advancing, Rosser says.

“State of the State” will air at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 9 and 10. The Adelphia cable TV Channel 9 reaches more than 150,000 households in over 200 towns from Ellsworth, Bangor, Waterville, Augusta, Lewiston to Boothbay and Kennebunkport.

The show is hosted by Christopher St. John, executive director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy in Augusta. The show is produced by Trudy Deblois of the Adelphia Cable TV studio in Augusta.